Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
Dominick Reyes was heavily favored to beat Jan Blachowicz and capture the vacant light heavyweight title last weekend in Abu Dhabi, and I have a feeling “The Devastator” was so impressed by his own performance against Jon Jones that he believed the UFC 253 co-main event was a mere formality.
Blachowicz came out with bad intentions and took the fight to Reyes from the opening bell. In fact, “The Devastator” was outstruck across the board in both the first and second rounds before getting finished off late in the second stanza.
Watch the highlights here.
“Well fuck! Gotta pull the trigger!” Reyes wrote on social media. “Nothing left to do but get back up. Congrats to Jan, hell of a performance. Not all of god’s lessons feel good. Thank you to Dana White and UFC for the opportunity. Thank you to my team and all my supporters I’ll come back stronger and better. I love this game and will continue to grow.”
Reyes dropped to 12-2 in defeat.
Blachowicz (27-8) is expected to make his first title defense against the winner of Glover Teixeira vs. Thiago Santos, who collide at the promotion’s upcoming “Fight Night” event on Nov. 7 at APEX in Las Vegas, presumably on ESPN+ (details here).
Unless Jon Jones interferes.
“Those are the guys that are fighting for the next shot,” White said at the UFC 253 post-fight press conference. “But obviously if Jon Jones wanted that fight, we wouldn’t deny Jon Jones the opportunity.”
Perhaps Reyes can rebound against Anthony Smith or even Johnny Walker.