BARUERI, Brazil — C.B. Dollaway was looking to make a statement in his UFC Fight Night 58 main event against Lyoto Machida in Brazil, but he came up short against “The Dragon”.
Machida finished Dollaway after landing a hard left kick to the liver a minute into the middleweight bout, and “The Dobberman” felt “paralyzed” after the kick.
“I thought it was going to go to my head and he slipped it under my elbow,” Dollaway said in the post-fight press conference in Brazil. “I thought I had it covered and took a step back, tried to take a breath and was basically paralyzed. It’s a disappointing loss.”
Dollaway, who held a bag of ice close to his ribs during the entire press conference, doesn’t know yet if he suffered any fractures during the 62-second bout.
“I think it’s just a liver kick, but it’s starting to feel a little worse now that the adrenaline is wearing off,” he said, “but hopefully it’s just a liver kick and I’ll be back in training soon and be ready to fight again.”
The loss snapped Dollaway’s two-fight winning streak. “The Dobberman” is now 4-2 in his past six UFC bouts, with wins over Cezar Ferreira, Francis Carmont, Daniel Sarafian and Jason Miller.
Machida bounced back to the win column in impressive fashion in Brazil, and he expected Dollaway to last longer.
“I train this type of kick a lot, and I felt it was the right moment to throw it and I was happy enough to connect,” Machida said. “C.B. is a tough guy and I wasn’t expecting to end this so quickly, but that’s how things are in this division. When the kick connects hard, it might be it.”