Coach Outlines Why he Thinks Jon Jones Beat Dominick Reyes, “Absolutely” Sees Rematch

Following UFC 247, Jon Jones said he’s confident he beat Dominick Reyes, and now one of his longtime coaches, Mike Winkeljohn, has outlined why he thinks the decision was not controversial.

Winkeljohn on which rounds he thinks Jones won

Leading up to Saturday’s card, most people understand Reyes had a puncher’s chance. But the rising star was a huge underdog to end Jones’ reign as the the light-heavyweight champ. Reyes came out, guns blazing, and many people had him outscoring Jones in rounds one, two and three. But, after the entertaining fight, Jones retained the title via a unanimous decision win.

Well, since UFC 247, there’s been plenty of discussion and debate about the decision, But, while talking to MMA Fighting more recently, Jones striking coach,Winkeljohn, said this about the fight:

“We lost the first round,” Winkeljohn said. “The second round I thought we edged. The third round, we might not have got that round. I honestly had [rounds] 2, 4 and 5. I think 2 and 3 were really close.

“You never know with judges. I was telling Jon to keep up the pressure, the pressure’s working. Keep working the body. Keep working those legs. Keep doing what you’re doing and try to break this kid. Of course, I wanted the takedown, too, but Dominick was just an incredible athlete. He’s so good at what he does.

“I just wanted Jon to keep gassing the kid out because he’s known for his endurance and I believe it worked out that way. Jon just kept going, dug down deep and it was an awesome fight.”

Now, although a lot of people seemed to have scored the fight for Reyes, the idea Jones was ‘robbed’ is a bit far fetched. Reyes outscored Jones in aggregate by 119 to 107, but the champ did score a couple of takedowns. Of course, fights aren’t scored based on overall metrics and by round-by-round.

Even if you didn’t the score the fight for Reyes, no one can deny that his performance at UFC 247 was extremely impressive.

So what about a rematch?

Since the decision has been widely scrutinized, there’s been a lot of calls for a rematch. So does Winkeljohn think a rematch will happen?

“There’s no doubt about that,” Winkeljohn said. “Jon likes rematches. Jon is a student of the game. We would all put our heads together, but at the end of the day, Jon sits down and says, ‘This wasn’t good, this is what he can do,’ and he’ll be even more motivated. Just like [Alexander] Gustafsson where you saw his performance was totally different.

“It’s not that he took anybody light, but he’s just so smart at making those small adjustments that are needed. Us as a team, we’ll try to help out as well.”

UFC President Dana White also scored the fight for Reyes, so don’t be surprised if a rematch gets booked right around the corner.