mma / News

CB Dollaway Has Permanent Damage After Elevator Incident

February 21, 2018 | Posted by Joseph Lee

In an interview with MMA Fighting, CB Dollaway said he’s still dealing with issues after injuring his back in September 2016. The incident was caused by a malfunctioning elevator and forced him to withdraw from UFC 203. He has been out for seventeen months and will return for UFC 222 in a fight with Hector Lombard. Here are highlights:

On the extent of the injury: “There’s permanent damage. There’s no way to — it’s irreversible, essentially. I could go try to do a surgery or something, but my doctors have been like, ‘Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend it,’ because they don’t know how that’s going to turn out. So it just is what it is, you know?”

On a return to light heavyweight: “It just depends if I put the size back on, which, I imagine I will. It’s just going to take a little time. Putting on 10 or 15 pounds of muscle, it’s hard, especially with high cardio and everything we do. But yeah, I fought that fight there (in July) and I just didn’t feel the same as I did before. Like, when I had originally moved up, I felt big, strong, I feel good. Then this time when I went in there, I didn’t feel like myself at that weight, so I was like it’s probably better to go back down to middleweight. I just want to make sure I’m healthy,” he added. “At the end of the day, I’m not going to walk away from this sport with millions and millions of dollars, most likely, so you’ve got to make sure your body’s good when you leave the sport. I’m not going to rush back in and get permanently injured even more, so I’ve got to look out for myself a little bit. When you walk away (from mixed martial arts), are you going to be able to function? At the end of the day, I want to make sure I can still live a decent life when I’m done with it.”

On Lombard: “He’s a buzz saw. When you go out there, you know: The first round, you better be ready to get it, because he’s coming. I feel like he’s a guy who knows he doesn’t have a big gas tank, he’s not looking to go into deep waters, and he’s going to come out and try to get you out of there in the first round. So it’s kinda one of those things, you’re going to have to survive the storm. Hopefully get through that and then take over. I’ve been in those grueling, crazy-ass fights that you pretty much win on guts, and I’m willing to do that. I don’t know if he is. I feel like when it starts getting tough, he might look for a way out. I’ve proven myself. I’ve been in there, I’ve been in those tough fights right up until the end. Some of my fights have been decided, I think, in the last 30 seconds, getting that reversal or getting on top and getting control of something. So we’ll see how it goes.”

article topics :

C.B. Dollaway, Joseph Lee