C.B. Dollaway Still Battling Career-Threatening Back Injury 18 Months After Elevator Incident

Former “The Ultimate Fighter Contestant” C.B. Dollaway returns to the Octagon in the middleweight division on March 3 when he takes on Cuban powerhouse Hector Lombard at UFC 223.

Dollaway has been managing an ongoing back injury as a result of an incident involving a malfunctioning hotel elevator which occurred in September 2016. The injury happened the day before UFC 203, where he was scheduled to face Francimar Barroso. The injury was so bad that doctors had to pull him out of the fight.

Dollaway was on the treatment table for 10 months as a result of the back injury he suffered from the incident and returned to the Octagon in July 2017 in his light heavyweight debut while earning himself a unanimous decision victory over Ed Herman as part of “The Ultimate Fighter: Redemption” Finale.

It’s been over one and a half years since the elevator incident and Dollaway is still struggling with the injury.

“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 cannot go into much detail about the legalities surrounding the incident as he is currently seeking financial compensation due to loss of earnings, the ongoing the effects of the injury and the fact that he was unable to participate at UFC 203.

The focus now is about getting his body healthy and ready to fight again after losing a significant amount of weight as a result of the incident. Dollaway said he may return to the light heavyweight division in the future but with the injury and the amount of time it takes to put on the right amount of muscle he’s happy to be fighting at middleweight.

“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,” Dollaway said. “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.”

Dollaway now hopes to re-establish himself in the UFC middleweight division and the first hurdle is to get past UFC veteran and former Olympic judoka in Lombard. The Cuban hasn’t won inside the Octagon since March 2014, but Dollaway isn’t taking any chances and knows he poses a very real threat, particularly at the start of the fight.

“He’s a buzz saw,” Dollaway said of Lombard. “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 gruelling, 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.”

“There’s one thing they always say, the last thing to go is your power,” Dollaway said. “Maybe his speed isn’t there, maybe his reflexes aren’t there, but he’s still got power if he catches you. And he’s a southpaw, which makes him awkward.

“If he catches you, he’ll turn your lights out, so you better be on your toes, you better be ready, and you better respect him.”