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The most talked about subject in the aftermath of UFC 247 at the Toyota Center in Houston has been the scoring of the main event encounter between reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and Dominick Reyes.
While Jones managed to successfully defend his title via unanimous decision against Reyes in a scorcher of a fight that went the distance, many believe the scoring was inaccurate and that Reyes should have won the fight which was evident from the loud boos from the crowd in attendance immediately after Bruce Buffer made the announcement. Even on social media, lots of fans came out in support of Reyes, stating that he was robbed off a sure victory by the judges.
On top of that, the fact that one judge scored the evenly contested fight, where at times, especially in the first three rounds, Jones was often pushed to the limit by Reyes, 49-46 in favor of Jones has drawn massive ire from fight fans and analysts around the globe. UFC President Dana White was present at the post-fight press conference and he acknowledged the issue of dismal scoring by the judges sitting cage side. (h/t MMA Fighting)
“The scoring was all over the map. Going into the last round I had Dominick Reyes 3-to-1 going into the last round. My kids are terrorizing me that ‘the fix is in’ and ‘how can this happen, dad? Reyes won that fight’ and the list goes on and on of people that are reaching out to me. People have it all over the place. But the reality is we’re not judges. None of us are judges. The judges call the fight and that’s that. As far as the judging and the reffing tonight, do I think it was perfect? I do not. I think that we need to do some work down here.”
White stressed on the fact that he doesn't side with the process of judging fights he asked critics to bring these issues up and do everything within their powers to change the system so that the process is more streamlined and transparent.
“When these guys go out, Dominick Reyes is fighting Jon Jones, and Jon Jones is fighting Dominick Reyes, and they’re both fighting the judges too,” White later added. “I don’t know how many more times I can say it. If you think these guys are incapable of judging a fight, then do everything in your power to take it out of their hands.”
White praised Jones who recorded his 11th straight successful title defense after picking up the win on Saturday for putting up a gutsy performance to deny a determined and spectacular effort by Reyes to cause the biggest upset in the UFC. He also mentioned his take on a possible rematch between Jones and Reyes in the near future.
“Coming into this fight, my big thing was the only problem with this fight is the general public doesn’t realize how dangerous this guy really is and what a huge threat he is to Jon Jones. I never talk about fights right after, but I was just backstage doing interviews—Jon Jones walked by with his legs all wrapped in ice and they carried Dominick Reyes, guys were carrying him. When you see that s*it backstage, you know you just saw an incredible fight. Do I think that he deserves a rematch? Sure, he does. But we’ll see what happens. Here’s the other thing. Say what you want about Jon Jones. Jon Jones wins fights.”
