CB Dollaway – The Doberman Bites Back

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By Thomas Gerbasi

As a former All-American wrestler for Arizona State and the owner of a 6-0 pro mixed martial arts record, all eyes were on CB Dollaway as he began his stint on The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs Team Forrest earlier this year, and when he began walking through opponents on the show, the glare of expectations got even more intense.

“I started to feel it a little bit,” said Dollaway, “but it’s just one of those things where you try not to let it get to you, forget about it, and just do what you need to do.”

And he did, even as fighter after fighter got eliminated, leaving Dollaway and the other three semifinalists (Amir Sadollah, Jesse Taylor, Tim Credeur) to gut things out in the gym while the other competitors either healed up or let loose in their final days in the house.

“I was at the grind every day for the whole six weeks,” he said. “Everybody else is having a great time and you’re still pushing forward and trying to keep your mind concentrated on the task at hand. I had been through similar things in wrestling – after the Pac-10’s a lot of guys don’t move on to the national tournament and all they’re talking about are girls, going to pool parties and going on spring break to Mexico while you’re still trying to focus.”

It wasn’t easy then and it wasn’t easy now, but Dollaway soldiered on.

“You’ve got to remember what you’re there to do and you can party anytime, but the next few weeks are once in a lifetime so you’ve got to keep your head right,” he said.

But suddenly and stunningly, just as Dollaway seemed poised for his anointing as one of the two finalists on this Saturday’s finale show at The Palms in Las Vegas, he was submitted late in the third round of a fight he was winning against comeback kid Sadollah. The dream was over, the “0” was off his record, and for the time being, Dollaway was just another eliminated fighter.

“I knew eventually I would lose,” he said. “There are too many ways to lose in this sport and eventually it’s gonna happen; it’s almost inevitable that someone’s gonna catch you sometime, and the gloves are so small that if you get hit one time, it could be the end of your night.”

Little did he know that the run of finalist Jesse Taylor would end just as abruptly after he imploded on a night out in Vegas after filming on the show ended. UFC President Dana White removed Taylor from the finale, and the search for an opponent for Sadollah began and ended with Dollaway and Credeur.

“I was ready to go as soon as he told me,” said Dollaway. “It’s not very often that you do get a second chance and I just wanted to make the most of it.”

He did, decisioning Credeur in a hard-fought bout that earned him a second shot at Sadollah in Saturday’s finale. ‘The Doberman’ promises a different result this time.

“The first time around I kinda ran out of gas with two minutes left in the fight, and I don’t think that’s gonna happen this time around,” he said. “I’ve been working my ass off and I actually started working out at a place called Athlete’s Performance here in Tempe – they’re pretty well-known for their strength and conditioning – and I’ve been doing a lot of hard work there. I just feel that I’m ready to go three five minute rounds, no questions asked.”

Dollaway expects that Saturday’s bout won’t be a quick one either, judging by their first fight, which saw the resilient Sadollah survive a nasty cut under his eye and a third round rear naked choke attempt by Dollaway that seemed to be an airtight finisher.

“From the experience of fighting him one time, I know he’s hard to finish,” said Dollaway. “In the third round, I thought he was done and then he found a little burst of energy to keep going.”

Given their history and everything that’s at stake, Sadollah-Dollaway II sounds like the perfect recipe for another classic TUF finale bout along the lines of Forrest Griffin-Stephan Bonnar, Rashad Evans-Brad Imes, Joe Stevenson-Luke Cummo, or Kendall Grove-Ed Herman. Dollaway agrees.

“Fighting a guy like Amir,” he said, “I’m guessing it’s gonna be a three round war.”

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