CB Dollaway eeked out a win tonight against Daniel Sarafian at UFC On FX 7 in a closely contested, entertaining battle that was worthy of the co-main event slot.
Dollaway stays on the outside to begin with and lands a few kicks and times a couple of punches nicely too.
Sarafian looks to be slowly feeling his way into the fight, but then sudddenly springs forward with a nice combinations of punches and a kick along with it that has Dolloway backing up quickly then smiling in acknowledgement at his opponent.
Back to the feeling out process then Sarafian bangs in a right hand and it buckles Dollaway’s legs. Dollaway scrambles for a takedown but there’s nothing doing and they reset.
Sarafian lands some more solid shots, but Dollaway stays upright this time. Surprisingly soon after he motions his opponent in towards him, but he’s not really doing much offensively himself and isn’t being particularly successful on the counter either.
Onto the second round and Dollaway’s still looking to work of the counter, but Sarafian hits home with the right hand again and with his opponent stunned he looks for a takedown but isn’t able to secure it.
They go back to the stand-up and the action is coming in fits and starts with Dollaway landing the occasional nice kick and Sarafian sometimes landing a nice punch while also throwing the odd kick without much technique.
Towards the end of the round Dollaway suddenly has Sarafian rocked with a punch. On the mat he’s hammering down blows to Sarafian’s head and the fight looks like it could be close to being stopped, but the bell sounds to save the Brazilian.
Onto the third and both men look tired and you have to wonder if Sarafian is fully recovered from being shaken up late in the second.
The two men trade and after taking a couple of shots Dolloway lands a nice punch himself and Sarafian acts like it didn’t hurt and points to his chin before dropping his hands. That’s a mistake as Dolloaway catches him off-guard though by swooping down and landing a takedown.
Dollaway then swiftly moves to mount, but Sarafian does a good job to escape and end up on top himself.
Now it’s Sarafian who’s got mount and then takes Dollaway’s back looking for the rear-naked choke. Credit to Dollaway though as he hangs in there and then manages to reverse the position again. The two men scramble again as the final bell sounds and it’s going to be down to the judges to figure out who emerges on top here.
And so it’s on to the scorecards and it’s CB Dollaway who scrapes through to a split decision win (29-28 x2, 28-29).
