Dominick Reyes believes he has the answer to why Jon Jones has decided to make the move up to heavyweight.
At UFC 247, Dominick Reyes came up short in his quest to unseat Jon Jones as the UFC light heavyweight short. So short, that many if not most spectators believed that Reyes was the rightful winner of the fight. Before Reyes, Jones had another narrow decision victory over Thiago Santos at UFC 239, which, on paper was even closer than the Reyes fight, with Santos getting the nod on one judge’s scorecard. Reyes feels that the trouble Jones had in his two most recent title defenses reveals that the talent at light heavyweight has finally caught up with Jon Jones and that Jones had to make a drastic career decision as a result (h/t ESPN):
“He’s moving to heavyweight because those guys are slow,” Reyes told ESPN. “You do realize that, right? He can’t keep up with us anymore. After what me and Thiago [Santos] did to him, he’s like, ‘Man, I need to go up. These guys are getting too fast, they’re getting too athletic, they’re getting too good.’ The heavyweights are still slow.”
Dominick Reyes does not believe he is the sole reason why Jon Jones made the decision to move to heavyweight, but he is convinced that the prospect of a rematch against him is is what ultimately led to Jones’s light heavyweight exit. Just don’t expect Jones to ever admit that.
“I think his ego won’t let him admit that I’m the reason [he moved up],” Reyes said. “I know he doesn’t want to rematch me. He gave up the belt. You don’t give up something you’re proud of. … You earned that s—. Why would you just give it up unless you felt like you didn’t earn it?”
Dominick Reyes is set to face Jan Blachowicz for the vacant light heavyweight championship at UFC 253.
Do you agree with Dominick Reyes? Did Jon Jones leave the light heavyweight division because he did not want to rematch Reyes?
