Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Dominick Reyes kicks Jon Jones during their UFC 246 fight.
- Jon Jones narrowly won his UFC 247 fight at the Toyota Center in Houston on Saturday.
- The long-reigning light heavyweight champion beat the game challenger Dominick Reyes despite statistics saying he was hit far more often.
- Even the UFC president Dana White thought Reyes had won, and said he was being terrorized by his children who were apparently telling him Reyes was the winner.
- Jones, though, highlighted the difference in takedowns. "[It was] A hard-earned victory, but a victory," the champion said.
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Long-reigning champion Jon Jones narrowly won a fight which the UFC president Dana White said he should have lost in the UFC 247 main event at the Toyota Center in Houston on Saturday.
Californian southpaw Dominick Reyes proved to be a game challenger for the champion's light heavyweight title, attacking Jones with a combination of strikes and varying his target from the head to the body and even the legs.
Jones struggled to establish a rhythm because of that early onslaught and was only able to really assert himself for part of the third round, then the fourth and the fifth.
Jones was awarded a unanimous decision victory with two scores of 48-47 and one wide score of 49-46 which baffled the UFC commentator Joe Rogan. "For anyone to think that was 4-1 Jon Jones, that person's insane," he said, according to MMA Junkie.
White said he scored the fight for Reyes and that even his children were telling him Jones should have lost. "Going into the last round, I had Dominic Reyes three rounds to one," White said at the post-event press conference.
"My kids are terrorizing [me saying] that the fix is in, and, 'How could this happen, dad? Reyes won that fight.'"
He later added: "The reality is, who gives a s---. We're not judges. The judges called the fight. That's that."
Statistics say Reyes won
Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Jon Jones had his arm held up as the winner, after a close back-and-forth with Dominick Reyes.
Fight Metric statistics indicate that Reyes landed more punches in rounds one, two, and three, as well as landing more significant strikes through the five-round fight as a whole.
Reyes landed 23 of 59 punches (38%) compared to Jones landing 17 of 27 (62%) in round one. In the second, Reyes landed 33 of 68 (48%) against Jones' contribution of 22 from 37 (59%). And, in the third, Reyes again landed more with 26 of 45 (57%) while Jones landed 19 of 34 (55%).
It was only in the fourth when Jones snatched the momentum, landing 20 of 34 (58%) compared to Reyes who landed 13 of 41 (31%). In the fifth, Jones landed 26 from 34 strike attempts (76%) compared to Reyes who landed 21 from 46 (45%).
"I know I won that fight … I made Jon Jones look like just a man," Reyes said after the fight, according to ESPN. "I brought the fight to him."
Jones, meanwhile, called the victory "hard-earned" and highlighted the difference in takedowns as a reason for his win. Jones scored two takedowns from nine attempts, while Reyes scored nothing.
"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.
"[It was] A hard-earned victory, but a victory."
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