Dominick Reyes Mocks Jon Jones: “He Has Fought Average Athletes”

UFC light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones defends his title against Dominick Reyes next. Though he has faced many fighters over multiple generations, he has managed to overcome every one of them. 

Over the years, Jones has fought legends such as Lyoto Machida, Vitor Belfort, and Daniel Cormier. He has also fought the fighters of the new generation such as Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos. Through such a dominating reign in UFC Jones has managed to convince many fans that he can not be beaten at the light heavyweight division. However, the next title contender would disagree with that notion for sure.

With an unbeaten record of 12 wins, Dominick Reyes seems confident to dethrone the long-reigning light heavyweight champion. Reyes stated that Jones has fought some good opponents. However, he believes that he is a unique opponent when it comes to the skillsets he brings into the octagon. Reyes claimed:

“He has never experienced an athlete of my caliber. He has never fought an athlete like me. He has fought average athletes. Some pretty good athletes. But not on my level, not on my explosiveness. Not bringing the power I bring with the mind I have attached to it. I can match him mentally. I match him physically. he just has longer reach.”

Jon Jones has a reach of 84.5 inches, which is sometimes unfair to his opponents. He surely has more experience in the sport compared to Dominick Reyes. However, Reyes claims those won’t matter on the fight night. 

“The place he beats me right now is experience and reach. I don’t care about experience. Cause I have fought many experienced guys and that does not mean anything. It means Zero on fight night. The only thing that matters is what going on in front of you.”

Dominick Reyes is certainly a strong opponent for Jon Jones. He is coming off an impressive knock out win over Chris Weidman and he is unbeaten so far in his career. Hence it does seem that his skills are highly underrated. Of Course, it has to be taken into consideration that apart from the fight against Volkan Ozedemir, Reyes has not faced a high level of adversities. Hence he has not got the opportunity to showcase his entire arsenal. However, it’s a different playing field when you are up against arguably the greatest fighter ever. It goes without saying that Reyes has to be on his absolute best against Jon Jones at UFC 247. Whether that is enough to beat Jon Jones would be intriguing to see.