Dana White Proven a Man of His Words After Granting Dominick Reyes’s Petition for Breaking 5-Year Skid

Dominick Reyes‘ career was seemingly going down the drain after his infamous loss to Jon Jones four years ago. Going into his UFC 247 bout undefeated, Reyes lost a tough, controversial decision to ‘Bones’ at the end of the sanctioned five rounds.

There was a widespread sentiment in the UFC world that ‘The Devastator’ had won, with fourteen out of the twenty-one media members scoring the bout in favor of the challenger. Since then, Reyes could not win even one of his four fights until last Sunday, when he won a fight after four years, and did it in style. It prompted Dana White to do something unprecedented.

Dominick Reyes reveals Dana White rewarded him separately for Jacoby KO

Dominick Reyes, because of a decline in his form since the Jones loss, was ranked 15th ahead of his Fight Night clash against the unranked Dustin Jacoby on June 9. A loss would have been catastrophic and would probably have seen him crash out of the 205-pound rankings entirely.

‘The Devastator’, though, lived up to his moniker on Sunday and caught Jacoby with a hard left hook in the second round, scoring an emphatic knockout victory, and reminding fans of his old pre-UFC 247 brilliance. However, after the bonuses for the card were announced, many felt that Reyes had been hard done by the UFC once again. And among those people was Reyes himself.

The former title contender made it a point to ask the UFC CEO about the lack of bonus. And the 54-year-old, seeing the error of his ways, decided to give Reyes the bonus privately. “I didn’t get the bonus that night, which was a little bit disappointing. But I recently talked to Dana and, yeah, I got the bonus now. Yeah, it’s really really awesome,” Reyes told journalist Ariel Helwani in an interview on the latter’s ‘MMA Hour Show’.

It surprised the journalist, who asked Reyes how the ‘private’ bonus came about, to which the Mexican American revealed that he simply talked to the UFC boss about it, and the latter agreed. Reyes, however, wants something more from Dana White now, apart from the bonus.

Reyes wants to fight at ‘The Sphere’ next

While Dana White was generous in giving Dominick Reyes a bonus for his fantastic victory, ‘The Devastator’ hopes the Las Vegas resident will continue to be generous and book him for UFC 306 on September 14 at the iconic ‘Sphere’ in Las Vegas.

“Sometime this year. I mean, at least one more time this year. I’m not gonna call a date. I’m not gonna call an opponent. I’m just going to fight. But I’m working my way back toward the top. So, obviously, let’s climb and find somebody … But it would be cool to fight in The Sphere. That’s like a one-off thing. And that would be super awesome. But we’ll see. I’m just enjoying it,” Reyes said in an interview with ESPN MMA after his victory.

‘The Sphere’ opened last year, and is the most unique venue in the world, where the audience can watch an event on massive, curved LED screens that wrap around the venue, giving an immersive experience. The UFC CEO has declared his intentions to put on the first combat sports event in ‘The Sphere’ and Reyes is hopeful of being part of the historic event.