The best and worst from UFC 247: Jones vs. Reyes
UFC 247 is in the books and well, if there’s a more controversial event in 2020 I’d be surprised. The pay-per-view – which went down in Houston, Texas – saw numerous examples of questionable judging, and it all culminated in the main event when Jon Jones defended his UFC Light-Heavyweight crown against Dominick Reyes.
Elsewhere, Valentina Shevchenko confirmed her status as one of the best pound-for-pound female fighters on the planet, while we got big wins for Justin Tafa, Dan Ige and Derrick Lewis.
Here are the best and worst moments from UFC 247: Jones vs. Reyes.
#1 Worst: The decision in the main event
I don’t usually start these pieces with a ‘worst’ moment but unfortunately, the decision in last night’s main event overshadowed everything else on the card by a great deal.
It’s been over a decade since we last saw Jon Jones come away from the Octagon with a loss to his name – and even that was a bogus disqualification – but UFC 247 should’ve marked the first time he was properly defeated in professional MMA.
Underdog challenger Dominick Reyes took the fight to ‘Bones’ from the off, outlanding him in significant strikes and even stuffing his takedown attempts, and essentially, ‘The Devastator’ had the champion in the most trouble we’d seen him in since his first fight with Alexander Gustafsson back in 2013.
Sure, Jones came back in the fourth and fifth rounds, looking like the fresher man and putting Reyes under a lot of pressure, but when the fight ended, it looked to me like the challenger had won the first three rounds quite clearly, and we’d have a new champion.
Instead, the judges all went for Jones – with one somehow deciding the fight had gone 49-46 in his favour. Quite how they decided this I’m not sure – the third round was somewhat close, but to give Jones four rounds is insanity.
The fact that this wasn’t the only piece of errant judging on last night’s show says a lot, too; Dana White can state that Texas’s athletic commission needs to improve, but if that’s the case, the world’s best MMA promotion shouldn’t be putting on big shows there. Essentially, Reyes should be a champion right now and the fact that he isn’t is a travesty.