Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
For Dominick Reyes, winning a UFC title bears more weight than beating Jon Jones.
Undefeated light heavyweight contender Dominick Reyes will take on the fight of his career when he faces Jon Jones at UFC 247. Not only does he have a chance to bag UFC gold, he will also share the Octagon with one of the best fighters of this era.
But for “The Devastator,” the title matters way more than holding a win over Jones.
“(If) I win the belt, I’m in the record books forever – period,” Reyes said during a UFC 247 media event on Thursday (via MMA Junkie). “I beat Jon, now it’s the cherry on top. Now it’s creeping into legendary status. But that’s just a nice little cherry on top. For me, winning the belt is everything.”
Reyes went face-to-face with Jones for the first time at a press conference during the UFC 246 fight week. The 30-year-old fighter says he felt no intimidation, and actually saw Jones as an insecure man, more than anything.
“I wasn’t intimidated at all,” Reyes said. “It was interesting. In the faceoffs, that was the first time I ever met Jon in my life, or even (got) near him. We came face-to-face, and my heart rate didn’t raise at all. I felt at home. I felt like, ‘This is it. This is Jon Jones.’ The allure of Jon Jones is a lot bigger than he actually is.
“I thought he was going to be glowing or some (expletive),” he continued. “My whole life, I grew up watching this guy and exuding all this different kind of energy, and when I saw him and I faced off this far away from him, I was like, ‘This guy is just a man with many insecurities.’ You can see it all over him.”
UFC 247 takes place this Saturday, February 8th at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.