Jon Jones put his next opponent Dominick Reyes on blast at Friday’s UFC 247 press conference as he critiqued the challenger’s game and branded him a ‘one trick pony.’
“You’re the one [to beat me]?” Jones asked at the Las Vegas presser. “You knocked out Chris Weidman. He’s been knocked out so many times. Good job. I don’t have to knock out people. I don’t have to knock out people. The only way you can possibly win this fight is to catch me with a left. We all know that. I could submit you, I could out-wrestle you, I can kickbox you to death. I’m going to get you. I’m going to get you, Dominick. You know it. You’re a one-trick pony. We saw your highlight reel. It was straight left, straight left, straight left.”
Reyes seems to have irritated Jones and the long-undefeated champion went on to explain why.
“Dominick wins his last fight, from out of nowhere, we’ve never met in person, I’ve never shaken the guy’s hand, and then the guy, instead of being just cordial or being a martial artist or showing a degree of respect, he gets on the microphone, young and immature, and goes, ‘I don’t need party favors; I need the world title.’ That’s how it started. But it’s all good. We’re here now. He got what he asked for, and I’m going to put my hands on him, and it’s going to be great.”
“I know nothing about him, honestly. I know nothing about him. I see the games that he wants to play with the insults, and I don’t really care. I don’t really care at the end of the day. My job is to destroy this dude and start focusing on 2020. I’m going to have a great 2020, and it’s going to start off by destroying Dominick. I don’t know what I want to do to him. I don’t know if I want to knock him out, choke him out, but oh, dude, I’m going to get him. I’m going to get him. I promise you guys.”
However, though Jones is dimissing Reyes chances of beating him, he has made it clear that by no means is he taking him lightly.
“I do feel like Dominick has everything to win in this situation. He’s relatively unknown, but that’s why I’m training as hard as I can. I was 240 (pounds) last week. I’m 230 this week. I’m taking him extremely seriously. I watch his fights every single day. Because he’s unknown, people would expect someone in my position to take him lightly, and that’s where guys in my position would fall.”
