Dominick Reyes will find out that there is more to just fighting Jon Jones as fight week continues.
That’s according to Anthony Smith who failed in his attempt at defeating Jones when they met at UFC 235 last March. Reyes will look to have better luck when he faces “Bones” in the main event of UFC 247 on Saturday night.
“The Devastator” is undefeated and very confident of his chances. But Smith believes he has no idea what he’s getting into:
“Dominick Reyes has no idea what he’s getting into. And it’s not even the X’s and the O’s,” Smith said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show (via MMA News). “There’s so much more to fighting Jon Jones that I learned now but would’ve been pretty helpful before the fight.
“And there’s a lot of things that guys don’t talk about because I think some people are afraid that it’s gonna make you look like a pansy or something. Like you’re not man enough to handle it but there’s a lot of stuff that goes into fighting Jon Jones and Dominick Reyes is about to find that out.”
“Lionheart” touched on one of those things — Jones messing with the schedules of his opponents during fight week due to the favoritism that he receives.
“Alright, I’ll just be honest. All the people that treat you so well the week of a fight and the people that you feel like are your friends, it’s very different when you’re fighting Jon Jones and you go into the fight week,” Smith explained. “Usually, fight weeks are pretty relaxing for the most part like you got lots of media and stuff, and it’s not like I’ve never been in the main event before I fought Jon Jones.
“It’s not like I’m not used to that but he’s very much the favorite. He messes with your schedule, he just messes with you the whole time and by the time you get to the fight, you’re mentally exhausted.”
For his part, Reyes seems fine but all that could change in the next few days.
What do you make of Smith’s comments?