This article was originally posted on MMA Madness
When All-American wrestler CB Dollaway entered the world of MMA, he seemed destined for great things.
Dollaway was an early favorite to win the seventh season of the “Ultimate Fighter” competition, but suffered back-to-back submission losses at the hands of Amir Sadollah.
Dollaway bounced back strong with convincing victories over Jesse Taylor and Mike Massenzio, but his winning streak came to an abrupt halt when he took on fellow TUF alumni Tom Lawlor at the historic UFC 100.
Dollaway failed on a takedown attempt and Lawlor capitalized, sinking in a tight guillotine choke, forcing Dollaway to tap out.
“Somehow I ended up on my ass when I was going in on the shot, and when I tried to pop back up he sunk the guillotine [choke] in,” Dollaway told MMAMadness.com. “I don’t usually ever shoot like that but for some reason I just ended up on my butt and set myself up to be put in a guillotine, and it was curtains after that.”
With the loss, Dollaway finds himself right back to where he was last year after submitting to Sadollah in the TUF finale.
"The Doberman" was heavily favored heading into his bout with Lawlor, and it seemed he was controlling the fight on the feet before his wrestling instincts got the better of him.
“I probably didn’t need to take that fight to the ground, because I was doing fine on my feet and should have stayed up there,” Dollaway said. “For some reason, I reacted and took that shot and it was a bad shot, so I’ve just got to learn from it.”
Dollaway was originally set to take on submission wizard Dan Miller at UFC Fight Night 19 this coming Wednesday night, but a leg infection has forced Miller to withdraw.
Dollaway will still compete on the card, however, against heavy-handed UFC newcomer Jay Silva.
Not much is known about Silva, but he’s a large middleweight who has finished the majority of his fights with strikes. Silva competed just last month, knocking out opponent Ray Lizama in the third round with punches.
“I looked him up and he’s 5-0 with four knockouts, so obviously he knocks people out, so he’s probably going to be a dangerous opponent,” Dollaway said. “I’m going to do some more research on him and get some more video on him so I can take a look at what he actually does. He looks like a Brazilian guy so he probably has some Jiu-Jitsu ability, but I’ve got to do a little more research to find out more about him.”
Dollaway was able to do a little bit of research on Silva and has found out that his Brazilian opponent is a left-handed fighter, which doesn’t concern him because he has experience against southpaws from his previous two fights.
“Whatever happens happens, but I did do some research and he’s a southpaw, which isn’t too bad because my last two training camps were for southpaws, but with this one I’ve been preparing to fight a right handed fighter,” Dollaway said.
“I have enough experience for southpaws from my previous camps so I know what to do. The experience should play a factor as well since he only has five fights and I’ve had about 16 or so already plus the ones I had on [The Ultimate Fighter], which aren’t on my record but they are still fights that I gained experience from. I’ve also fought in the UFC before and he hasn’t yet, so he’s probably going to have those first time jitters.”
With Silva having finished most of his fights by TKO, it would seem like he will come out and try to do the same to Dollaway, but Dollaway is anticipating more of a Jiu-Jitsu game for his opponent and he’s prepared to go to the ground if need be.
“I was already training a lot of Jiu-Jitsu, because obviously Dan Miller has some very good Jiu-Jitsu with some good submissions, so I was already training for that already. I’m just confident in my conditioning and everything and I’ll go in and make it a fight.”
If the fight does stay on the feet, Dollaway is a comfortable striker and will approach the stand-up game intelligently.
“If it stays on the feet, I’ve just got to fight him smart and not stand in front of him and trade punches,” Dollaway said “Obviously the guy has a lot of knockouts on his record so you want to hit and move.”
Silva will have a significant size advantage heading into this fight, but Dollaway is used to sparring and rolling with bigger fighters. He also feels it may be an issue for Silva to cut weight on such short notice.
“He’s a big guy, but that might be an issue for him to get down to weight on such short notice, which would play in my favor,” Dollaway said. “[Light heavyweight Ryan] Bader is one of my main sparring partners and he’s one of the biggest, scariest muscle guys out there, especially up against a 185-pounder [like myself].
"Bader walks around at about 220 pounds sometimes, so I’m not going to be intimidated by a guy who is bigger than me because I spar against bigger guys all the time.”
This fight may be a do-or-die situation for Dollaway with the way the UFC has been releasing fighters with losing records as of late.
Regardless, Dollaway is focused on getting the win and still has the goal of one day fighting for the UFC middleweight championship.
“You never want lose, every time you step out there you’ve got to look to win. My goal is to someday have that belt, and if I keep losing, that’s never going to happen because it will keep setting me back,” Dollaway said.
“I’m looking to string together wins to get that title shot, so this is an important fight and I’m doing everything I can to prepare myself for it.”
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