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There was a huge furor surrounding Jon Jones' unanimous decision win against Dominick Reyes in the main event of UFC 247 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas but according to the champ himself, his win was not controversial in nature.
Reyes clearly got the better of the champ in the first couple of rounds of the bout while Jones came back strongly in the fourth and fifth rounds, but it is the third round, which happened to be a tight one, which would decide the fate of the pair. Many fans though, gave that third round to the challenger instead of Jones, claiming that Reyes had done enough in the fight to dethrone 'Bones'.
In the post-fight press conference, Reyes even said that felt “disrespected” by the fact that one judge had scored the contest 49-46 in favor of the reigning champion Jones. Jones responded in the post-fight press conference and said that Reyes wasn't disrespected by the scorecard. (h/t MMA Fighting)
“I don’t think he was disrespected. I got takedowns. He got no takedowns. I got his back. At one point I put a hook in. The fifth round, I was surprised in the output difference we had. I have to watch the fight. It’s hard to speak with confidence when I haven’t watched the fight.”
Jones said that he was trying to gauge Reyes and his gas tank in the first two rounds, waiting to tee off on the challenger once his stamina gave way in the later rounds. Jones also said that his ability to take a hit is underestimated.
“There’s no panic. A part of me wanted to see if he could keep that up. A part of me wanted to see what he had to offer. I saw what he had to offer. I also saw that he couldn’t keep that up. You’ve got to embrace that. What I do for a living is not always pleasant. It’s just a big part of the game. It was a great feeling out process. I realized I got to take his best punches. I think my chin is very underrated.”
Jones revealed that at the end of the fourth round, his coaches told him that the fight is hanging on the balance and he must win the fifth and final round to retain his title - and that is exactly what he did.
“I wasn’t always confident that I was winning the fight. I was confident that I wasn’t going to be giving up or slowing down. Greg Jackson said to me, ‘Jon, you may need to win this fifth round to win.’ And that heart of a champion said, ‘No problem, coach. I got that. I can do that for you. I can leave it all out there.’"
