Former light-heavyweight title contender Dominick Reyes suffered another KO loss on Saturday night against Ryan Spann and now retired double-champ Daniel Cormier has suggested it might be time for him to hang up his gloves.
“Is it time for Dominick Reyes to walk away after what Ryan Spann did to him?” Cormier asked on ESPN’s ‘DC & RC” show. “Because we got a guy that was super close to becoming the champion against Jones, to now he got knocked out by Jiri who’s the champ, he got knocked out by Jan Blachowicz who was the champ. Now he’s not fighting champions, he lost to a guy in Ryan Spann, who has now won two in a row. Is it time for Dominick Reyes to be done?
“Dominick Reyes was so close to being the champion. When it starts to turn in the way that it has, it’s time for him to walk away.”
At 32-years-old, Reyes is still quite young to be considering ending his career, but at the same time his recent record of four losses in a row does raise some serious concerns.
As DC alluded to, Reyes stock rose even in a title challenge defeat to Jon Jones back in February of 2020 after giving him a real challenge, but it’s been all downhill since then.
He was subsequently TKO’d by Jan Blachowicz in their battle for the vacant belt, then KO’d by a spinning back elbow from Jiri Prochazka, and an 80 second KO defeat against Spann on Saturday night has led to concerns as to whether his chin has now deserted him.
Elsewhere on Saturday night’s UFC 281 card we had a clear demonstration of what can happen when someone continues to compete despite clear warning signs as Frankie Edgar opted to take one last fight despite having been KO’d in his previous two bouts, only for Chris Gutierrez to brutally knock him out in less than a round.
Edgar is 41 though, almost a decade older than Reyes, and has already been a successful champion, so it’ll be easier for him to accept that his long career has now drawn to a definitive close.
However, for Reyes, With a record that now stands at 12-4 and knowing that he was so close to the title just a couple of years ago, it’s undoubtedly going to be tough for him to heed DC’s advice, and indeed the word from the fighter himself post-fight was that he does still plan to continue competing.
“I’ll be back just have to shake it off and get back in there,” Reyes wrote on Instagram.
