Dominick Reyes
Jon Jones was a heavy favorite to beat Dominick Reyes at UFC 247, but after he’d uncharacteristically struggled against Thiago Santos in his previous outing, there was a school of thought that the unbeaten ‘Devastator’ could pull off a historic upset.
Reyes was certainly confident pre-fight that he could get the job done and he immediately took the fight to him in the opening round and found success with strikes that at one point knocked Jones off-balance to the mat and at other times saw him hastily retreating to avoid a continual barrage of blows.
By the third round Jones long title reign appeared to be in a precarious position as he struggled to switch up a gear, but in the championship rounds he did start to gain momentum offensively, while Reyes own output began to wane, which would ultimately lead to the result being left in the hands of the judges.
There was a palpable feeling that a new 205lb champion could be crowned, but instead the judges ruled unanimously in Jones favor, with one scorecard of 49-46 in particular receiving heavy criticism afterwards.
Opinions have varied about who actually won the fight, with more media outlets having scored it in Reyes favor, while Dana White also believed he’d won, but others dids see it in Jones favor.
