C.B. Dollaway on press-conference snub: 'Obviously, I'm not a high-profile fighter'

(This story appears in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)

Sometimes, UFC middleweight C.B. Dollaway forgets he fights in front of millions of people on a regular basis.

Then he remembers when someone stares at him in a restaurant.

“To me, I’m just me,” Dollaway, 31, tells USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie. “I have a job, I train at the gym, and I go home to my family. Obviously, I’m not a high-profile fighter.”

At no time was that more clear than when he attended a big UFC news conference in Las Vegas, dubbed “The Time Is Now” and featuring headliners from several of the promotion’s upcoming major events.

The promotion wheeled out its 2015 schedule and flew out the headliners of its major shows through February, including Dollaway (15-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) and his opponent, ex-light heavyweight champ and onetime middleweight title challenger Lyoto Machida (21-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC). The two meet at “UFC Fight Night 58: Machida vs. Dollaway” on Saturday in Barueri, Sao Paulo, Brazil (10 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1).

C.B. Dollaway

Judging by the reaction Dollaway got, his time was … not yet.

Dollaway sat on the podium in a suit next to UFC 183 headliner Nick Diaz and behind UFC 182 title challenger Daniel Cormier. In a news conference that lasted about 90 minutes, he was never asked a question.

A thread on a popular MMA Internet forum poked fun at his invisibility, trolling readers that he’d gone off in a tirade, when, in fact, his expression was limited to smiling at Diaz’s outbursts.

The way Dollaway sees it now, he can at least say he was invited to be in the company of the UFC’s biggest stars.

“It’s kind of surreal sitting up there with those guys and knowing I’m that close,” he said.

But of course, there’s a big difference between “close” and “there.” The gap between his local and global MMA celebrity is one he must close, especially if the UFC continues to award opportunities not exclusively based not on rankings, but with popularity factored in.

Today, the overriding challenge facing UFC fighters outside the cage is how they go about creating a groundswell of momentum that puts them over the edge on buzz.

For some, the answer is creating or refining a companion persona to their octagon appearances. It might be understandable if the team around him, including his longtime manager, Dave Martin, might tell him to speak up more loudly and more often.

“No, that’s not who C.B. is,” Martin said. “He’s not afraid of anybody, and he won’t back down from a fight. He’s entertaining. He’s doing a great job inside the cage, and that’s probably what’s led him to this fight.”

For Dollaway, who’s 4-1 in the UFC in the past two years and ranked No. 8 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA middleweight rankings, the answer is beating No. 6 Machida on Saturday. If he can do that, he said, people might look at him a little differently.

“I’ll probably get a little more respect with the fans and the media,” he said. “They’ll take me a lot more serious and give me a lot more credit.”

But for now, he’s fine being a local hero in Tempe, Ariz., where he resides with his wife and daughter and co-owns a prominent gym, Power MMA and Fitness.

Sometimes he just has to explain he’s like any other guy.

“I’m thinking, what the hell is this guy staring at? What’s his problem?” Dollaway said. “Then he’ll come over and be like, ‘You’re C.B. Dollaway! You fight in the UFC! What are doing here?’

“I live here, man.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 58, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.