Middleweights booked for May 26 bout
A middleweight bout between a pair of fighters in desperate need to get back in the winner’s circle has been added to UFC 146 in May.
Jason “Mayhem” Miller and C.B. Dollaway will meet on the May 26 card at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The UFC confirmed the fight overnight, which was originally announced Saturday by Miller on his Twitter account. The UFC said verbal agreements are in place for the fight.
Miller (24-8, 1 NC, 0-2 UFC) returned to the UFC last year to coach opposite Michael Bisping on Season 14 of “The Ultimate Fighter.” But when the two fought on the TUF 14 Finale, Miller was dominated by Bisping, losing by third-round TKO. And perhaps worse, UFC president Dana White told HeavyMMA Miller’s performance was “the worst standup I’ve seen in my life.” Prior to re-signing with the UFC, Miller had a two-fight winning streak – a TKO over Tim Stout for Strikeforce and a submission of Kazushi Sakuraba at Dream 16. Miller’s first fight in the UFC came in April 2005 – a unanimous decision loss to future welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre.
Dollaway (11-4, 5-4 UFC), the Season 7 runner-up on “The Ultimate Fighter,” has lost two straight. At UFC on Versus 3 in Louisville, Ky., last March, he lost by first-round knockout to Mark Munoz in just 54 seconds. He followed that up in August with a second-round TKO loss to Jared Hamman. Prior to those setbacks, the All-American wrestler from Arizona State had put together a stretch of five wins in six fights since his TUF 7 loss to Amir Sadollah.
While the Miller-Dollaway bout is the first to be officially announced by the UFC for its annual Memorial Day weekend card in its Las Vegas home base, CEO Lorenzo Fertitta recently went on a question-answering spree with fans on his Twitter account and said a heavyweight title fight between champion Junior dos Santos and top contender Alistair Overeem is planned as the main event for the pay-per-view. And last week, officials from Overeem’s new Imperial Athletics team confirmed to HeavyMMA that is the date that is being targeted for the fight.