Dominick Reyes came face-to-face with light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones for the first time recently ahead of their headlining UFC 247 title clash next weekend and he believes he saw signs of insecurity in his rival.
“I wasn’t intimidated at all,” Reyes said of their face-off. “It was interesting. In the faceoffs, that was the first time I ever met Jon in my life, or even (got) near him. We came face to face, and my heart rate didn’t raise at all. I felt at home. I felt like, ‘This is it. This is Jon Jones.’ The allure of Jon Jones is a lot bigger than he actually is.
“I thought he was going to be glowing or some (expletive). My whole life, I grew up watching this guy and exuding all this different kind of energy, and when I saw him and I faced off this far away from him, I was like, ‘This guy is just a man with many insecurities.’ You can see it all over him.”
“Every single person is trying to tell you that, ‘Oh my God, you’re fighting Jon Jones. What are you going to do?’
“I’m gonna fight. I’m gonna do what I’m great at. I’m gonna do what I love doing. People think it’s a lot more. It’s still a fight. It’s just a fight.”
Reyes comes into the fight with a perfect 12-0 record, with six wins in a row, including his latest first round KO win over Chris Weidman, so he’ll understandably be riding high on confidence, though that still pales in comparison to the fact that the only loss of jones 27-fight career was a disqualification due to landing illegal downward elbows in a fight he was dominating against Matt Hamill a decade ago.
