Jon Jones defeated Dominick Reyes at the UFC 247, held in Houston, Texas, last night. It was his third successful defense in his second stint as a champion of the light heavyweight division. His win came via unanimous decision, and it caused many negative reactions.
The judges Marcos Rosales and Chris Lee scored 48-47 for Jones, and Joe Solis 49-46, and their decisions upset not only Reyes but the entire MMA community.
“My kids are terrorizing me that the fix is in. ‘How does this happen, Dad? Reyes won the fight!’ … None of us are judges. The judges call the fight, and that’s it,” Dana White said after the contest.
When the president of the organization states something like that, things weren’t clear for sure.
Reyes (12-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) was better than Jones (26-1 MMA, 20-1 UFC) in the opening three rounds, while on the other side, Bones captured fourth and fifth, and that was pretty obvious. However, it stays unclear how all three judges awarded the advantage to the champion.
“Yeah, 3-2 or 4-1, it could’ve been either of those,” Reyes said. “I truly believe that, I’m not just saying that. I mean, look at the numbers, look how the fight played out. Those takedowns, how can you even score those as a takedown?”
He was very aggressive in the opening round and kept on pushing throughout second and third as well. Jones tried to impose his tempo in the octagon but failed. He didn’t receive some devastating hits which wold shake him, but was defensive-minded and inferior.
The tide changed in the last two sequences, once Jones’ stamina emerged to the surface. He had a few takedowns and also landed a couple of good punches, but nothing Reyes couldn’t handle.
The 30-year old challenger pushed Jones to the limits, and this was the first time after a while in which we saw the champ having some problems. Also, Reyes had more significant strikes landed, 116-104, and that is something that never happened before.
Yet the still, reigning champ and arguably the best fighter in the organization wasn’t upset about the comments and all the remarks regarding his win. Jones believes he won the fight fair and square, and doesn’t see anything problematic.
The fans like it when they see me get hit — it doesn’t happen very often,” Jones said. “But at the same time, I landed some takedowns. I got his back on more than one occasion. … A hard-earned victory but a victory.”
It seems that there is a possibility of seeing a rematch between these two because Jones indicated that he has nothing against meeting Reyes once again. Meanwhile, Ariel Helwani, as well as some other prominent names from the MMA society, are already lobbying for such a thing to happen.
Until then, Jones will stay the champion, and Reyes will have a lot to regret. He had a fantastic chance to dethrone Bones, and it is a big question whether he will have the same situation ever again.
