Jon Jones’ Controversial Win over Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 Keeps his Title

Jon Jones defeated Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 and retained his light heavyweight title. Though, as usual, his fight couldn’t go down without controversy. Although it was a unanimous decision, many believe that the champ didn’t win this one and that the judges helped him.

The scorecards said that Jones had the edge over Reyes, and according to them, he won this one clearly -48-47, 48-47, 49-46.

But following the fight, many were shocked with such an outcome. Dana White was the first to tell that the scoring was wrong.

“The scoring was all over the map,” White said. “… Going into the last round, I had Dominick Reyes 3-1 going to the last round. My kids are terrorizing me that the fix is in, ‘How could this happen, Dad? Reyes won that fight.'”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAKgJMAloxw

Reyes couldn’t hide his disappointment with the outcome, especially with the scoring of judge Joe Solis who ruled that Jones won four rounds.

“I do feel disrespected,” Reyes said. “I know I won that fight. … I made Jon Jones look like just a man. I brought the fight to him.”

The other two judges were Marcos Rosales, and Chris Lee, all of them have a license from the Texas Department of Licensing.

For the first time we’ve seen somebody land more hits on Jones than otherwise, and we can say without any hesitation that his rival deserved a draw at least. Jones wasn’t beaten in this one, but, he for sure he didn’t win the fight, let alone with such a difference.

Reyes’ left hand was creating too many problems for Jones, and on several occasions, he landed some pretty hard hits, which hurt the champ pretty good.

The challenger came out strong and was better than Jones in the first three rounds, but the more experienced champion turned the tide in the fourth and fifth rounds when he controlled the match.

In those moments, the Bones had a few takedowns, and also hit the opponent in the head twice, causing Reyes to look shaken a little bit. In his opinion, the judges didn’t make any mistakes and they delivered the right decision.

“He landed some hard hits. The fans like it when they see me get hit — it doesn’t happen very often,” Jones said. “But at the same time, I landed some takedowns. I got his back on more than one occasion. … A hard-earned victory but a victory.”

Following the fight, many the media representatives, former UFC and MMA fighter in general, as well as some experts, stated that Jones needs to give the rematch to Reyes. We’ll see if that happens.

With this victory, Jones cemented him as the undisputed ruler of the light heavyweight category, and as the guy who is the best pound-for-pound fighter on the globe. This was his 20th UFC win and the fourth against the challengers who had a perfect record.

In the co-main event of the UFC 247, Valentina Shevchenko (19-3) easily routed Katlyn Chookagian (13-3) and kept her 125-pound title.

Without any problems she defeated the rival, proving her dominance in this category. The Bullet as the fans call her, took down Chookagian in the late part of the third round, and unleashed a series of ground-and-pound strikes forcing the judge Jacob Montalvo to stop the fight.

“I feel there is a lot of great girls in the 125-pound division,” Shevchenko said. “I feel I still have a lot of them, but I am open to anything. I am open to any fight.”

She is yet to decide about her next opponent. Many would like to see her fighting Amanda Nunes once again.