Getty (L-R) Dominick Reyes and Jon Jones.
UFC superstar Jon Jones has voiced concern for Dominick Reyes, who suffered a vicious knockout defeat.
Top-ranked light heavyweight contender Reyes marked his return to action after a year and a half’s hiatus to take on Ryan Spann on the preliminary card of UFC 281. ‘The Devastator’ got off to a quick start and faced resistance from Spann, who asserted his dominance and had Reyes hurt early in the outing. Spann scored a massive first-round knockout of Reyes in under 90 seconds to extend his winning run.
It marked Reyes’ fourth loss in a row. Reyes appeared to hit a skid in his professional career after competing against former UFC light heavyweight champion Jones in Feb. 2020 at UFC 247. Jones managed to come out on top of the judges’ scorecards in a razor-thin decision win that many felt could have gone either way.
Following the defeat to Jones, Reyes went on to drop another three consecutive bouts, all coming by way of knockout to former champion Jan Blachowicz, reigning 205-pound king Jiri Prochazka, and now Spann.
Jones Voices Concern for Reyes After UFC 281 Loss
Jones took to Twitter to share his thoughts on Spann’s vicious finish of Reyes with a clean jab in the opening round.
A fan wrote: “It’s crazy how much the @JonnyBones took Reyes confidence.”
Jones responded, “I didn’t take his confidence, in his mind he beat me. Maybe that’s his problem.”
Jones concluded the string of tweets expressing his concern for Reyes along with a cryptic message.
“Do u feel bad for dom?” asked a user.
“I don’t know if feel bad are the words, I would say more like concerned for his health,” Jones answered.
“‘Get on the sidelines permanently or get in the game,'” added Jones. “That was his message to me in one of his last interviews, now that’s my message back to him.”
Blachowicz Doesn’t Think Jones Will Return
Jones has been on the sidelines for nearly three years since his last outing against Reyes. He has been preparing for a move up to the heavyweight division and is expected to return for his divisional debut in a potential title fight.
According to former light heavyweight titleholder Blachowicz, Jones’ highly-awaited comeback may never come to fruition.
“I don’t believe Jon Jones will be back to fighting anymore,” Blachowicz said in an interview with Middle Easy (transcribed by MMA Junkie). “I think he’s afraid to lose so much that he will do everything to not coming back.”
“There was a time when he dominate completely our division,” Blachowicz explained. “After couple of years, everybody catch his level, and it was very hard for him to win the fight. Like with Dominick Reyes, it was a very, very close fight. Everybody who fight against him, it was a close fight. Closer and closer. So I think he started feeling that he’s not so good anymore, that we are growing up, catching his level, and finally someone will stop him. I think the reason he doesn’t want to fight is that he’s afraid to lose.”