Dominick Reyes Claims Jon Jones is Ducking Rematch With Move to HW

On account of the fact a lot of folks believe Dominick Reyes actually beat Jon Jones this past February, there were repeated calls for the two to run it back. Well, now that Jones has vacated the light heavyweight title and is heading up to heavyweight, a rematch seems far less likely. 

According to Reyes, that’s because the renowned fighter is afraid to throw hands with him again.

Reyes claims Jones is running from a rematch

Reyes battled the now-former champ at UFC 247, and lost the fight via unanimous decision. Although the bout was close, many people scored the first three rounds for Reyes.

The rising star called for an immediate rematch as a result, but Jones repeatedly argued that he had clearly won the fight and that he wasn’t that interested as a result. More recently, Jones buzzed the MMA world by announcing he’s dropping the 205 title and moving up to heavyweight

Well, since then, Reyes spoke with ESPN. While discussing Jones’s decision to change weight classes and drop the LHW title, he said this (quotes via MMA Junkie).

“I think his ego won’t let him admit that I’m the reason,” Reyes said. “I know he doesn’t want to rematch me. It’s obvious, he vacated the belt.

You don’t give up something you’re proud of. I win the belt, I’m not gonna be like, ‘Oh I’m gonna give it up, I’m gonna go up to heavyweight.’ No man, you earned that (expletive).

Like why would you just give it up unless you feel like you didn’t earn it?”

“He’s moving to heavyweight because those guys are slow,” Reyes said. “You do realize that, right? He can’t keep up with us anymore.

After what me and Thiago did to him, he’s like, ‘Man, I need to go up. These guys are getting too fast, they’re getting too athletic, they’re getting too good.’ The heavyweights are still slow.”

Jones responds

Well, Reyes’s comments got back to “Bones”, and he fired off this response via Twitter.

“I literally had to leave it all out there the night I beat Gus, my last fight I ended comfortably scoring points. Gus pushed me to a place I have still yet to see again”

“Both DC and Gus faced fatalities in our rematches, now for the first time in my career I’m terrified to have a rematch? If you believe this narrative, slap yourself”

So, when you consider what Jones has accomplished in his career and who he’s defeated, it is hard to imagine him outright avoiding Reyes.

At the end of the day, however, Jones is coming off back-to-back, tightly contested wins (prior to Reyes he barely beat Thiago Santos). The consensus seemed to be his competition at light heavyweight could be catching up.