Dominick Reyes and Jon Jones in their UFC Light Heavyweight Championship bout during UFC 247 (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The main event of UFC 247 saw Jon Jones defend his title against Dominick Reyes but there was a lot of controversy after the fight
Jon Jones is untouchable in the UFC or so it seems. The former Light Heavyweight champion never lost his title in a fight but was stripped of it for separate reasons.
Jones inside the Octagon was something else and not many were giving his opponents a chance at all. The 33-year-old has the most successful title defences in UFC Light Heavyweight history with 11 to his name, and that is a number that some other greats such as Khabib Nurmagomedov haven’t even come close to.
Jones, however, has had some close calls when defending his title. One of them was at UFC 239 where he got the win over Thiago Santos via a split decision.
However, more was to come at UFC 247 as he took on Dominick Reyes. Reyes came into this clash undefeated in his professional MMA career. The American was 12-0 before facing Jones and had defeated big names such as Chris Weidman and Jared Cannonier.
The bad blood was already there between them before this fight but things took a different route after the five rounds.
UFC 247 saw the pair meet on 8 February 2020 and it was quite an affair. Jones didn’t actually dominate Reyes and the challenger even had a few great hits on the champion.
There were a few moments where Jones was reeling but there wasn’t a big knock-down or KO that got everyone talking.
Jones too had a few punches that could have ended the fight but the pair kept on going. There was no stopping them and even splitting them after the five rounds.
Many waited with bated breath that there could be a new champion or the fight would at least be a draw. However, the decision went in Jones’ favour and it was a unanimous one.
There was a lot of controversy regarding this though. Most outlets had Reyes winning the fight and the challenger believed he was robbed of the title.
Even Dana White believed that Reyes won the fight and this left a bit of a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth.
Reyes kept calling Jones out for a rematch but that never happened. Jones went off to the Heavyweight division while Reyes did get his chance at glory a few months later.
However, that didn’t work out well for him. Jan Blachowicz defeated Reyes for the Light Heavyweight title at UFC 253 and The Devastator missed out on glory again.
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