5 Things You Need To Know About Dominick Reyes

UFC light heavyweight fighter Dominick Reyes is ready to lock horns with Jiri Prochazka at UFC on ESPN 23 on May 1, 2021. He will be looking to bounce back from two back-to-back losses. Meanwhile, Prochazka will fight in his second match in the promotion after picking up a win in his debut fight last year.

‘The Devastator’ will be preparing hard to fight against Prochazka, who is unbeaten in his last 11 professional fights. While Reyes is busy preparing for his fight, let us have a look at five facts about him that you may not know.

Dominick Reyes was undefeated in UFC prior to facing Jon Jones

Reyes debuted for UFC in June 2017. He fought against Joachim Christensen at UFC Fight Night 112 and won via TKO inside the first minute of the first round. He then picked up 5 straight victories in 3 years after his first fight.

After raking up six straight victories, he fought Jones for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 247. He incurred his first loss after a controversial unanimous decision victory went in favor of Jones.

He won against Chris Weidman when he moved to light heavyweight

‘The Devastator’ faced Weidman at UFC on ESPN 6, when the latter moved up from his earlier welterweight division. He was an underdog going into the fight.

However, he shocked everyone when he knocked Weidman inside 2 minutes. Reyes had connected with a right which dropped the latter into the canvas and subsequently finished him with another right.

He scored a memorable KO just before his UFC move

He fought against Jordan Powell at Legacy Fighting Alliance 13, three weeks prior to his first UFC bout. ‘The Devastator’ scored a KO victory after a brutal head kick. In all, he has scored 7 TKOs in his MMA career, but this would be the most special one.

The manner in which he scored the win brought everyone to their feet. Prior to the blow, Powell was showboating himself. This KO was enough for UFC to hand him a contract.

He has only 1 KO loss in 14 MMA matches

Reyes entered his match against Jan Blachowicz confidently. He was widely expected to win the vacant title which was left by Jones as he moved to the heavyweight division.

But call it overconfidence, as he underestimated the striking ability of Blachowicz, making him pay with a second-round TKO to capture the title and hand him his first KO loss.

Social media trolls affected his mental health

He was considered being the uncrowned champion prior to going against Jan Blachowicz for the vacant title. But the devastating loss not only handed him his first KO loss, but also brought social media ghosts into his mind. People started trolling him over social media and that got into his head.

“It’s such a toxic environment,” he said while appearing for MMAJunkie. “It’s so toxic, and I realized that, but I was reading all the comments and getting all involved and replying back to people and replying back to the trolls that were sending me messages. Dude, that’s so not good. That’s super bad for your mental health, especially in a sport like this, where mental health is 80 percent of the battle.”

For his next fight, Reyes would want to stay away from social media as he may need full concentration to prepare for an all-important clash. Can he break his losing streak?

READ MORE: When and Where to Watch UFC Fight Night: Dominick Reyes vs Jiri Prochazka