As per official records, Jon Jones has lost only in professional MMA to Matt Hamil via DQ. However, Hamil stated that he had never won the fight. The UFC tried to change the result to a No Contest but to no avail. Nonetheless, many believe Jones lost the light heavyweight title fight to Dominick Reyes, though ‘Bones’ won unanimously on the scorecards.
Reyes knows a thing or two about fighting Jones. As such, in his recent interview with Inside Fighting, Reyes provided insights into Jones’ flirting with the idea of matching up with light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. Dana White recently confirmed Stipe Miocic is next for Jones, but Reyes’ insight provided a pathway to another aspect of the fight game.
Jon [Jones] likes to just mess around too, you know? He likes to say whatever you want. He likes mental warfare. Jon’s a big mental warfare guy, so I can’t really take anything he’s saying seriously. It’s all with a grain of salt for me because I’ve done… I’ve had that mental war with him before.
Dominick Reyes via Inside Fighting
Reyes stated that Jones’s primary aim is for the MMA community to regard him as the greatest MMA fighter of all time. As such, Jones should target fights with fighters whom the MMA community considers a dangerous matchup.
Reyes’ upcoming fight is against Dustin Jacoby at the UFC Louisville on June 8. Jacoby has fought Alex Pereira in kickboxing and lost via KO. Reyes has trained with Pereira before, and the former two-time title challenger only has nice things to say about Pereira.
Dominick Reyes speaks on Alex Pereira’s superstar status
Alex Pereira has become a sensation in the UFC. After a storied kickboxing career, Pereira has become a two-division UFC champion even though he only had eight fights with the promotion. Even without proficiency in English, North American fight fans have taken a liking to the Brazilian fighter.
Wellington Turman, Dominick Reyes, Glover Teixeira, and Alex Pereira (Image via: Instagram)Pereira recently defended the light heavyweight title at UFC 300, knocking out Jamahal Hill. Magomed Ankalaev was the presumed challenger next, but now it looks like Jiri Prochazka. Former title challenger Dominick Reyes revealed on Inside Fighting that the ball is in Pereira’s court to decide his next opponent.
Yeah, so I think he [Alex Pereira] is fighting Jiri [Prochazka] next, but I think Alex could do whatever he wants. At the same time, I don’t really know. I don’t know the situation at all. Obviously, I’m not in the deal. I’m not in UFC offices. But I do know that he brings a lot of money to the organization, and he’s a pretty polarizing figure, so he could kind of do whatever he wants.
Dominick Reyes via Inside Fighting
Even though Pereira revealed Prochazka was next, the Czech fighter revealed he had not yet received a verbal or contractual agreement about it. Nonetheless, he is eager to rematch the Brazilian. He had called out Pereira after he defeated Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 300.
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