Moving into the seventh week of “The Ultimate Fighter 7,” Spike TV takes us right to the action.

With the control to choose the next fight, Team Rampage puts Gerald Harris up against Amir Sadollah in what Quinton calls, “a classic match of wrestler versus striker.” I agree with my coach’s summation.

If you didn’t know, Gerald is one of my best friends and is my teammate at Team Quest in Portland, Oregon. He and I have competed together in the IFL and trained together every day before being cast for the show. Gerald is a good guy and tough as hell. He is a lifelong “wrassler” and has the competitive résumé to prove it.

I was psyched when I found out we were both cast for this show, even though we knew there was the possibility we could fight each other at some point. With big smiles, we both agreed to beat each other’s asses, probably to a split decision, both win contracts and both get “fight of the night” bonuses, but for some reason we couldn’t quite agree on who would’ve actually won. I still say it would have been me!

And, since Gerald isn’t writing this blog, that’s the way we’re gonna keep it!

Amir, on the other hand, was most definitely a striker. A Holland-trained kickboxer with devastating knees and razor sharp elbows, Sadollah had a quiet way that I liked and respected.

But most everyone on Team Rampage was looking at Amir Sadollah as the weakest link since very early on in the tournament. I would hear guys talk about him in the hot tub, around the dinner table or during team meetings. As the days went on, it seemed everyone wanted to fight Amir and told stories of how they would break him into a million little pieces.

To this day, I still don’t understand what they all saw, or didn’t see, in Amir that made him seem like an easy target. Maybe it was because he’s built more like a soccer player than a “spooky” fighter-type? Who knows?

My observations of Amir Sadollah were of a stoic, disciplined mixed martial artist. He walked to his own beat and never followed the masses unless it was in his own best interest. He always trained hard, ate extremely well, and was a good partner to his team and a good roommate to all. Plus, he has a great sense of humor.

Now, I don’t want to date the guy (that’s right Beavis, I’m talking to you) but will surely stay friends with him after this is all over.

Back to the action, my man Gerald was set to fight and if anyone on Team Rampage was going to get the next ‘W,’ it was Harris.

I don’t recall how many tournament fights there have been thus far, but I do know that I have cornered every single one up to this point. Sometimes you see me, sometimes you don’t, but I am always there doing whatever needs to be done for my fighter…and even more so with Gerald, like I said, we are real teammates, not just “made for TV.”

Since we (Team Rampage) had the power of choice, we knew Gerald was going to pick Amir, and we all helped Gerald in any way we could. Well, most of us anyway (read last weeks’ blog!), and Gerald was ready.

The first round was crazy.

Gerald dominated every position, but Amir proved to be resilient. Multiple slams, devastating ground-and-pound and serious ring generalship put Harris way up on the judge’s cards.

This was the best I had ever seen Gerald perform. All of his training was finally catching up. He was aggressive, composed and calculated. A few more minutes of this type of beating and Amir would surely be done.

Round two started off well for Gerald also, but something was different. He was still winning the positions, but not as much as he had. Every scramble saw Amir begin to make up ground and get off a few offensive techniques, making this a very competitive round halfway through. Then, out of nowhere, Amir uncorks a perfectly placed knee on Gerald’s temple, dropping him to the mat.

Immediately scrambling for a single leg and trying to clean out the cobwebs, Amir gets busy reigning down blows on Gerald when the ref jumps in and stops the fight. TKO for Sadollah.

Gerald explodes physically and verbally. He jumps up off the canvas screaming that he wasn’t out, and he was fine. The ref just shakes him off and tells him that this fight is over.

But Gerald doesn’t hear that this fight is over, all he hears is: “My life is over.”

For me, this was gut wrenching to watch. Forget about the TV show, the camera crews in my face or the ugly blue jersey I had to wear. My close friend had just fallen short of his dream. In the blink of an eye, he was out of the tournament, and he was in pain.

At that moment in the cage, reality had set in for Gerald. Not the edited “reality” of TV that’s been fed into your house each week, but the reality of his life.

Gerald Harris quit his job as a public school teacher to be a champion. Gerald Harris relocated his wife and two young children half way across the country to become a champion. Gerald Harris had signed all of his rights away in a contract and got locked up in an insane asylum for six weeks in the Las Vegas desert to be a champion.

And at that moment, Gerald Harris believed he was not a champion, even though he proved that he was.

Now, THAT is as real as it gets.

Mike Dolce is a cast member of “The Ultimate Fighter 7.” He is a professional fighter, strength coach and sports nutritionist. For more information, and to read past blogs, go to www.MikeDolceMMA.com