For Dominick Reyes, the show must go on — with or without Jon Jones.
Jones announced a bombshell Sunday as he claimed he was vacating his light heavyweight title and taking time off from the sport. He went on to announce that Reyes and Jan Blachowicz would fight for the vacant title in the meantime as he felt he had nothing to gain from facing them.
The decision comes on the back of his recent back-and-forth interactions with UFC president Dana White over failed negotiations for a Francis Ngannou super fight at heavyweight. Jones claims he was shut down by the UFC when he asked for a pay increase to move up and didn’t even have a chance to mention a figure.
White, however, says otherwise as he claims Jones was asking for Deontay Wilder money which “Bones” vehemently denies. All in all, it looks like Jones has had enough of the situation which led to his decision.
Reyes: Jones Vacating Is Disappointing
For Reyes, it was disappointing to hear.
“The Devastator” was the last person to fight Jones as he took the champion to his limit in a close-fought decision defeat in February. Many observers felt Reyes did enough to win and have since called for a rematch.
However, that doesn’t look like that will be the case anymore. That said, Reyes is ready to move on.
“Disappointing if it is true and he is serious, but the show must go on.”
Although Reyes could be robbed of the chance of definitively defeating Jones, he has already spoken in the past of facing someone else like Blachowicz if that led to UFC gold.
“I don’t know if you guys know or remember, I called him out right after the fight [with Jared Cannonier],” Reyes said of Blachowicz last month. “This is a guy I’ve been wanting to fight for a minute, so if there’s an interim then yeah, hell yeah, let’s do it. But I think we’re gonna get that rematch first.”
Do you think we’ll see Reyes and Blachowicz battle for the vacant title?