What a night it was for the fans! Who would have predicted that Jon Jones would be pushed to the limit by Dominick Reyes who has never fought a championship fight?

The bizarre (49-46) Score by the Judge

But some things need to be addressed after the unanimous decision win by Jon Jones against Dominick Reyes. All the judges scored the decision in favor of Jones with 48-47, 48-47, and 49-46.

It was a very close fight. Going into round 5 the fight was probably 3-1 in favor of Reyes or 2-2. But one judge scoring the fight 49-46 does not make a ton of sense. In fact, it’s completely disappointing to see the fights of these calibers being judged in such poorly manner. If Jones had won the fight 3 round to 2, then it would have been a much believable decision compared to Jones winning 4 rounds.

Judge Marcos Rosales gave rounds 2, 4, and 5 to Jones for a 48-47 score, while judge Chris Lee gave rounds 3-5 to Jones for his 48-47 score. Judge Joe Solis gave rounds 2-5 to Jones for his 49-46 score.

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Close fight between Jon Jones and Dominick Reyes

Dominick Reyes clearly won round one and it is hard to argue against that statement. If we look at the number of strikes landed, Reyes was ahead of Jones for the first three rounds. However, Jon Jones came back in the championship rounds and put relentless pressure on Reyes and landed more significant strikes.

So Jones did enough to win the round 4 and 5, and Reyes won the first two rounds. It all comes down to the third round that decided the outcome of the fight.

One thing to be noted here is, Jones landed quite a few takedowns in the fight. Even if Reyes got back up and Jones was not able to do much damage with the takedowns, the judges have taken those into consideration. Besides the takedown, Jones was putting the pressure on Reyes. But was it enough to win him last three rounds or last four rounds (in one judges’ scorecard)?

The Championship advantage for Jon Jones

The first fight with Alexander Gustafsson, the fight with Thiago Santos, and now the fight with Dominick Reyes. Is the championship advantage a real thing?

After so many close calls in title fights, it can be assumed that the judges tend to lean towards the champion if the fight is close on the cards. Now to what extent this is true can not be said but today’s decision will certainly give a strong reason to believe the notion.

Well, UFC 247 is in the books now and Jon Jones is still the light heavyweight champion. It can not be argued that Jones is the greatest talent to ever step into the UFC octagon. However, fans have to take their hats off after the performance of Dominick Reyes. he was coming into the fight with an unbeaten record and he fought like a true warrior. When the odds were against him, he gave it all in the octagon and came very close to creating history.

Now it was a close fight and it is acceptable but debatable that Jones won the fight. But the judging system needs a change. Some fans will be in favor of the decision and some fans will be against it. But if it was a poor job by the judges involved then Dominick Reyes was just robbed off from having one of the biggest moments in UFC history, that is to be the first fighter to beat Jon Jones