You could consider it a rite of passage for veterans of "The Ultimate Fighter," or maybe just veterans in general. The young, cocky fighter comes onto the scene and wins a couple of fights after a setback. He starts thinking past his next fight and around corners to plateaus not yet reached. Then, suddenly, the momentum is gone.
C.B. Dollaway (10-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC), who meets Joe Doerksen (46-12 MMA, 2-5 UFC) Saturday night at UFC 119 in Indianapolis, admits he went that route after recovering from the setbacks he encountered on "The Ultimate Fighter 7."
While he couldn't seem to get past Amir Sadollah's armbar – Sadollah caught him with the move in the show's semis and again in the finale – he had his way with "TUF 7" alum Jesse Taylor, and with his favored Peruvian Necktie submission, no less.
Dollaway followed that up with a beatdown of Mike Massenzio at UFC 92. He was riding high and thought he could do no wrong.
Then, at UFC 100, he was introduced to Tom Lawlor.
"I was like, 'Well, if I can win this one and a few more, it will really put me in there,'" Dollaway told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). "Next thing I know, I get choked out."
The lesson was pretty straightforward.
"It's not really good to look past someone or look into the future too much," Dollaway said. "You've got to concentrate on the task at hand."
He's taken that lesson to heart in the past year and managed to put together another two-fight win streak against Jay Silva and Goran Reljic.
"You've got to work on your weaknesses and come back better next time," Dollaway said.
On Saturday, he meets Doerksen, a Canadian with experience of Jeremy Horn proportions. Doerksen recently won an extended contract by submitting Lawlor at UFC 113, his second victory in seven octagon appearances. But despite Doerksen's spotty UFC record, Dollaway isn't looking around the corner.
"He can take a beating, hang in there and submit you," Dollaway said of Doerksen. "He's dangerous, wherever the fight is. You can't let your guard down at all. I'm prepared for a war."
Dollaway has had chances to stray, especially since he and longtime teammates Ryan Bader and Aaron Simpson founded a new gym in Tempe, Ariz., the place he's long called home. But the gym is not yet open to the public because Dollaway and company wanted to make sure the business side of gym operations wasn't getting in the way of fight camps (Bader meets Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in UFC 119's co-main event).
"I'm just tired of training; tired of fighting the same guys every day," Dollaway said. "I'm ready to go fight a new guy."
And hopefully reach a new plateau the right way.
For more on UFC 119, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.
MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino's Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by Gorgeous George, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Goze. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.
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