Dominick Reyes didn’t merely dance with greatness—he waltzed with immortality and nearly stole the crown from the consensus MMA GOAT. When ‘The Devastator’ locked horns with Jon Jones at UFC 247, he authored twenty-five minutes of heresy against an untouchable deity, leaving fourteen of twenty-one media prophets convinced they’d witnessed the fall of an empire. The official scrolls, however, recorded a unanimous decision for ‘Bones’—a verdict that continues to echo through combat sports’ cathedral as one of its most sacred controversies.

To nearly slay the dragon most consider unconquerable isn’t just impressive—it’s mythological. Yet despite standing at the precipice of becoming champion, Reyes shrouded his experience in the shadows. Like Lazarus emerging from darkness, ‘The Devastator’ recently materialized on ‘The Gypsy Tales’ podcast, where the host’s question about facing Jones cracked open a Pandora’s box of revelations. The typically reserved Californian, finally unbuckling the psychological armor he’s worn since that February 9 night, delivered a narrative so visceral that it transcended sport.

“It was cool. I don’t want to sound like a–hole but it was like, underwhelming ‘cuz I thought he was going to be better… Like I thought he was going to be stronger ‘cuz I heard all these stories about how when Jon grabs you, it’s over. And like people from Jackson [Wink MMA- Jones’ gym] were saying this. Like all these professional fighters like were saying how freakishly strong he is and I’m like okay,” the light heavyweight revealed.

“And when we first clinched… I kneed him and then I was like, ‘Is that it?’ And we clinched, actually clinched, and then I broke the clinch and then landed the elbow on the clinch to exit… It was super clean and I was like, that’s it, ‘how did it not cut him?'” he added.

Safe to say Jones failed to meet the mythic expectations Reyes had constructed in his mind. After all, his athletic journey nearly culminated in NFL glory as a standout college football star. This brought rare physical tools into their championship clash. Reyes’s explosive frame was honed through years of Division I football at Stony Brook University where he terrorized opponents as an All-Conference defensive back. And to no one’s secret, this rugged frame came in handy against the then 205lbs god-king!

On the other hand, ‘The Devastator’ did give the New Mexico resident his due and was pretty impressed with Jones’s chin. “The dude is extreme, I’ll give him that. The toughest mot——ker I’ve ever come across my whole life… Jon’s toughness is probably the best in the world,” the former title challenger told the podcast host.

Well, if you need a testimony about Reyes and his legend, then we have something for you! Jones revealed that there was a moment when he nearly threw in the towel! Talk about getting props from the best!

“I got in the fight with him and he was giving me a true f—king run for my money,” Jones said. “He was the only other person to do it to me outside of [Alexander] Gustafsson. I remember thinking to myself, ‘F—k. You may have met your match, Jon.’ That’s what a voice said to me right in the middle of the cage. It was like, ‘You may have met your match.’ As clear as day, I saw a door in the Octagon and it was just like, ‘Hey. You’ve had a great career. You’ve done a lot of great things. This kid, he wants it, he’s hungry for it, Jon. It’s okay if you come up short in this one. Just don’t let him knock you out but you can just kind of skate through this one and let the kid have it, Jon.'”

For the unversed, the clash against Reyes at UFC 247 proved to be Jones’ last hurrah at 205lbs. After that, Jones went on a three-year sabbatical and moved to heavyweight thereafter. Despite the scare Reyes gave him, Jon Jones has continued his essentially undefeated and unrelenting march to greatness. Even after nearly two decades of fighting at the highest level and achieving almost everything the sport has to offer, ‘Bones’ is still as hungry and motivated to win as ever. This has led many fans to ask. What drives him? Well, Reyes had the perfect explanation

Dominick Reyes explains what Jon Jones’ main motivation

“Know thy enemy”, as Sun Tzu famously wrote, and you will win a hundred battles. Well, Dominick Reyes took that advice to heart. Before their UFC 247 clash, ‘The Devastator’ claimed, he obsessively watched all of Jones’ interviews and media appearances he could find. Why? Well, so that he could psychoanalyze and understand who ‘Bones’ was as a person and what makes him tick.

And based upon that research, ‘The Devastator’ came to a surprising conclusion! Jones is driven almost exclusively by spite. In fact, according to Reyes, the main reason the GOAT contender disliked Daniel Cormier so much was that he wanted to knock ‘DC’, who was on his way to entering the greatest of all time conversation, down a peg.

“That’s what I learned about Jon. I learned that he’s motivated by being the runt, I guess you could say. Like that’s been his motivation throughout most of his career. Oh big time, you know, big time. And then like he takes pride in taking out guys that were blessed. That’s why he hated, hated Daniel [Cormier] so much,” Reyes added.

Jones and Cormier, of course, went on to have two memorable fights at UFC 182 and UFC 214 respectively. Both of which ‘Bones’ won. And even though one of those victories was overturned to a no contest, the damage had been done. Cormier is considered an all-time great, but not GOAT contention-worthy by many. And Jon Jones can take the lion’s share of the credit for making that happen. What do you think about Dominick Reyes’ comments about fighting Jon Jones?