Former referee and current Bellator color commentator “Big” John McCarthy believes Dominick Reyes deserved the nod over Jon Jones.
This past Saturday night (Feb. 8), Reyes challenged Jones for the UFC light heavyweight championship. The title bout headlined UFC 247 inside the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. After five rounds of action, Jones was awarded the unanimous decision win. Many fans and media members had Reyes winning the fight 48-47.
“Big” John Thinks Reyes Had Jones Beat
Like many, McCarthy doesn’t see Jones’ win as a robbery. At the same time, he feels Reyes won the fight as he revealed during an edition of the Weighing In podcast (h/t BJPenn.com).
“Watching the fight, no doubt the two easiest rounds were the first round and the fifth round. The first round goes to Dominick Reyes, the fifth round goes to Jon Jones. The second round, it’s actually, in my opinion, the closest round in the fight, but there’s a moment with about 45 seconds left in the round, you see Reyes throw a combination that lands and you see him hurt Jon Jones, you see Jones start to back off, and then you see him going after him and he takes that round from that point. It was a close round, I might have had Jones up at that point, but Dominick Reyes takes the second round. And Dominick Reyes easily wins the third round,” McCarthy said.
This is the first loss in Reyes’ pro MMA career. Going into his title fight with Jones, “The Devastator” had gone 12-0. Reyes was coming off a “Performance of the Night” showing against Chris Weidman. Reyes knocked out the former UFC middleweight champion in the first round.
As for Jones, he has scored the third successful title defense in his second reign as the UFC light heavyweight champion. Jones snagged the title back in Dec. 2018 when he stopped Alexander Gustafsson in their rematch. Jones has earned decision victories over Anthony Smith, Thiago Santos, and now Reyes to maintain his hold on the gold.
