Dominick Reyes Tell Jon Jones to Bring on The “Smoke”

Recently Jon Jones relayed that folks should ask Dominick Reyes if he’s down to fight, and the rising fighter’s responded with an emphatic yes.

Now that Jones has handed Thiago Santos a defeat, the light-heavyweight champ holds victories over the top three ranked fighters in the division (Daniel Cormier, Santos and Anthony Smith). As  result, there’s been a lot of talk about whether there are any legit contenders for Jones right now.

Following Jones” win at UFC 239, he asked fans on Twitter who he should fight next. Someone mentioned Reyes, to which Jones stated:

Somebody ask him if he wants some smoke

This, not surprisingly, got back to Reyes while he was a guest on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. The 29-year-old had this to say in response (quotes via MMA Mania):

“Absolutely, I want all that smoke. Not just the smoke, I am ready to jump in the fire”

“I am the next guy up. I am 5-0 (UFC), beat two former title challengers back-to-back. I’m the next guy, I am number four and he (Jones) already beat everybody in front of me and I am ready to go. I think it’s a fun matchup.”

Now, in terms of top contenders Jones hasn’t faced and defeated, Reyes is the front runner here clearly. As it stands right now he’s ranked #4. But, at the same time, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of buzz for this match-up currently. Reyes is coming off a tightly contested, split decision win over Volkan Oezdemir, and of course, much of the talk regarding Jones’ next fight is tied to Cormier.

In other words, since Jones is talking about fighting again in December, Reyes will likely need to fight in the interim and score another win, before locking up a title shot.