Morning Report: Dominick Reyes calls for judging improvement: ‘I lost a lot off that moment’ vs. Jon Jones

Dominick Reyes is officially back in the win column.

It had been half a decade since the one-time UFC light heavyweight title challenger’s hand was raised inside the octagon. That all changed in Louisville, Ky. when “The Devastator” lived up to his nickname with a vintage first-round knockout of Dustin Jacoby in the co-main event of the June 8 Fight Night.

Reyes’ victory snapped a brutal four-fight skid that saw the final three of those losses result in knockouts. Albeit, two came against future UFC champions Jan Blachowicz and Jiri Prochazka. The loss that kicked off the stretch, however, was one of the more controversial decisions in recent memory, the unanimous decision against Jon Jones at UFC 247 in February 2020.

After Reyes’ Jacoby triumph, he received some comments from his old foe Jones who had a snarky response to something Reyes said about their fight. Ultimately, Jones told Reyes to accept the result so that he could become better as a fighter.

“That night, I felt very disrespected by those skewed numbers,” Reyes said of his Jones bout on JAXXON PODCAST. “My response to that [recent comment] is: God bless, Jon. Thanks for the advice.

“He gave me some good advice. He said basically I need to examine myself and not our fight and what he did and what the judges said. I should have and could have worked harder, I guess, or done more. I don’t know. Basically that — should have done more. So, I’m like alright. Thanks for the advice.”

The 34-year-old former Stony Brook safety has, unfortunately, fallen under constant reminders of the Jones fight in the four years since it happened, getting asked about it almost every time he’s back in the public eye. Throughout the aftermath, Reyes has claimed that the promotion did attempt to book an immediate rematch, similar to the situation between former champions Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Lyoto Machida in 2009-2010.

As the story goes, Jones vacated his title for the heavyweight division, making his debut three years later and capturing that belt against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in March 2023.

“He went up to heavyweight. He vacated and went to heavyweight. He literally said, ‘You’re not paying me enough to fight this guy again, he’s too dangerous,’” Reyes said of the proposed Jones rematch. “So, he vacated, and then six weeks later I had to fight in Abu Dhabi during COVID.”

There were a handful of issues from scoring perspectives and particular judges in Houston, Tex., at UFC 247. It’s a constant area of critique and debate in the sport and improvements are few and far between, which is why Reyes believes it’s so important that things start to take a turn for the better.

Ideally, Reyes would like the judges to sit in another room with headphones on and a screen at their disposal. If they can be out of the arena, even better, he says. If they have to be there, at least give them noise-canceling headphones. Instead of dwelling on the past, think of ways to improve the future.

“It is what it is. It’s something I would like to address in the future,” Reyes said. “Kind of come together with fighters and organizations and create a proper like, ‘How to become a judge criteria,’ instead of like, ‘Oh, you have experience in boxing and you have 40 years of judging, blah, blah, blah.’ Like nah, let’s have an actual course, an online course where you have to pass tests: This is how you judge an MMA fight, and then the higher your scores then you judge in actual live events if you do well. Your score counts. So like, it accumulates over time. If you’re a really good judge, you’ll only judge championship fights and high-level fights that matter where there’s a lot of money and lives on the line.

“I lost a lot off that moment. Lives are at stake here. For me, that’s the thing that I want to do something about. I don’t just want to talk about it and be upset about it. I want to go and actually do something about it when it’s all said and done.”

Reyes’ intentions are obviously good, but before we get on with the rest of our Thursday, it has to be highlighted that he’s talking about something that is already in effect. Take UFC commentator Laura Sanko for example. The former atomweight fighter-turned-broadcaster is a licensed judge in the state of Missouri after going through an eight-hour course that concluded with a test and everything.

That doesn’t mean eight hours is an appropriate amount of time, depending on one’s opinion, or that all states are the same with the requirements and experience levels, etc., but there are systems in place. It’s just a matter of finding what fits best in all facets. Something that’s sadly easier said than done.

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The MMA Hour.

BROADENED HORIZIN.

Pavlovich vs. Volkov Preview.

UFC 303 Promo.

Full fights.

PFL/Clay Collard fight week.

No Bets Barred. MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and Conner Burks break down Robert Whittaker vs. Ikram Aliskerov in the UFC’s Saudi Arabia debut.

Go to Twitter, use the #MorningReport hashtag, or find one of my tweets with it, and drop me a jam you’re currently really into. I’ll pick the best one alongside my daily choice and give you a shoutout! You can also share in the comments below — those are just harder to sift through sometimes!

Smiling internally.

I too have been thinking about The Matrix lately.

Donn.

Clobberin’ time.

Response.

Throwback.

Straight to O’Malley.

Sharabutdin Magomedov (12-0) vs. Antonio Trócoli (12-3, 1 NC); UFC Saudi Arabia, June 22

Anatoly Malykhin (14-0) vs. Oumar ‘Reug Reug’ Kane (6-1); ONE: 169, Nov. 8

It’s crazy to look back on the week after UFC 247. It was a wild time for MMA and life in general. To think what could have been had that main event taken place anywhere else in the world.

Except for Missouri. Never trust Missouri. No offense, Laura!

Thanks for reading!

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @DrakeRiggs_ on Twitter and let him know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.