UFC 186 will take place in Montreal this Saturday, and in one of the night’s feature bouts, C.B. Dollaway (15-6) will take on veteran Michael Bisping (25-7) in a matchup between middleweight contenders.
Beating Bisping is a tough task – all 7 fighters that have wins over him have challenged for UFC or Strikeforce gold, but Dollaway is confident about getting the potential victory and has a good idea of how he’ll square off with Bisping.
“I need to mix it up and keep him guessing, not follow patters and not just look for takedown or striking. I need to never let him get comfortable,” Dollaway said on UFC Tonight last night. “I’m going to just go and use some of that Colby College wrestling to put him on his back and feed him some shots.”
When it comes to any fight with Bisping, the elephant in the room is whether his opponent will target his injured right eye. That’s a tactic that Dollaway doesn’t plan on taking.
“I don’t target it, but I’m definitely not going to not punch him in the eye,” Dollaway said. “I’m not a bad sport. I’m not going to try to poke him in the eye. I’m not going to target it. But if that’s the eye he gets punched in, than that’s the eye he gets punched in. He got cleared to go in the Octagon just like me, and it is what it is.”
At 31-years-old, Dollaway is in the prime of his career, although the momentum that he’s put together after winning 4 of his last 5 fights was squandered in his last fight – a TKO loss to Lyoto Machida.
“[Against Machida] I learned to get in there and fight and not wait,” said Dollaway. “I had too much nerves and emotion get ahold of me. When I get in there, he’s just another man. I’m not going to let that happen again. I’m going to fight my fight and do what I do.”
With the focus on climbing back up the middleweight mountain, Dollaway knows what a win over Bisping will do for him and how much it means.
“A win solidifies me as a real contender in the minds of the fans, and that I do belong in the top ten. I’ll be on my way to a title shot.”