CB Dollaway was originally set to fight Francimar Barroso at UFC 203, but a freak elevator accident at a hotel days before the event caused the fighter to be injured and the bout to get canned.
It has been well over a year since the incident took place and Dollaway says that he has suffered permanent damage due to the accident.
“There’s permanent damage,” Dollaway told MMA Fighting. “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?”
Dollaway has fought since the incident, defeating Ed Herman by unanimous decision at the UFC Ultimate Fighter 25 Finale.
Up next for Dollaway is former Bellator MMA Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard, whom Dollaway compares to a buzz saw.
“He’s a buzz saw,” Dollaway said. “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.”
UFC 222 takes place on Saturday, March 3 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Cyborg and Yana Kunitskaya headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
