Dominick Reyes Trashes Jon Jones For the Eye Pokes

UFC champion Jon Jones will defend his title against the unbeaten light heavyweight Dominick Reyes. Jones has a unique opponent in front of him this time because nobody has seen enough of his next opponent Reyes.

However, Reyes has some attributes that can trouble Jones in their next fight.

Jon Jones’ Reach: Almost An Unfair Advantage

Jon Jones is arguably the greatest fighters in the history of the sport. However, there is one factor that separates Jones from the rest of his opponents, his reach. With a height of 76 inches, Jones has a reach of 84.5 inches, something that seems unfair to his opponents. To give a better perspective, the two opponents who came very close to beat Jones, Alexander Gustafsson and Thiago Santos have a reach of 79 inches and 76 inches respectively.  

To make things worse Jones implements a very unusual strategy to maintain the distance in a fight. He reaches out to his opponent with an open fist that causes illegal eye pokes to his opponents on some occasions. In a recent interview with Brendan Schaub, Reyes addressed this issue and said he would have a word with referee backstage about the eye pokes. Reyes stated:

“I am gonna talk to the ref about that one because that’s illegal. We are gonna have a real talk back there. If he puts his fingers out then I can’t get it. He uses that against everyone. You don’t realize until you are trying to come in. I don’t want to get stabbed myself in the eyes.”

Related: Jon Jones Steroids Controversies

Now every past opponent of Jon Jones has been confident of their skills and gameplan before the fight and rightfully so considering you are fighting at the highest level. But executing those gameplans against someone like Jon Jones is no walk in the park.

However, Dominick Reyes seems pretty confident in his gameplan against Jones. He believes the reach of Jones is something that has not been overcome by any of his past opponents. But at the same time, he believes Jones is not bulletproof. Reyes claimed:

“He is just a man. He makes mistakes just like all of us. Everybody thinks he is bulletproof and blah blah. He has made plenty of mistakes in his fights and he just gets away with it because of his long reach. But his reach is what makes the big difference. Reach is his biggest weapon, it always has been his entire career.”

Related: Dominick Reyes’ gameplan against Jon Jones