Corey Anderson made a big statement with an impressive first round TKO victory over Johnny Walker at UFC 244 last weekend, but that’s not going to be enough to earn him a title shot against Jon Jones, according to the champion.
“Just finished a coaches meeting studying Dominick [Reyes] and Cory‘s careers,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “Established Dominicks definitely the more dangerous fighter. Beating his ass next.”
Anderson will no doubt be bitterly disappointed by Jones apparent diss, which comes after compiling a four-fight winning streak in the division, including a trio of unanimous decision victories over Patrick Cummins, Glover Teixeira and Ilir Latifi prior to the Win over Walker.
That’s helped Anderson rise to No.5 in the light-heavyweight rankings and gained him more attention than ever due to the violent nature of the finish and his uncharacteristically brash and outspoken antics afterwards, but apparently that wasn’t enough to interest Jones enough to fight him next.
The fact that in general Anderson’s UFC career has so far largely been based on outpointing opponents, together with having been KO’d in back-to-back fights against Jimi Manuwa and Ovince Saint Preux back in 2017 likely hurt his chances to fight for the belt on this occasion.
Instead it’s the No.4 ranked Reyes who gets the nod, and he certainly has an impressive resume so far, amassing a perfect 12-0 record to date, including six victories in the UFC, which has seen him TKO Jared Cannonier, claim decision wins over Ovince Saint Preux and Volkan Oezdemir, plus most recently knock out Chris Weidman in just less than half a round.
