Jon Jones: I Chose Dominick Reyes Over Corey Anderson

Jon Jones is preparing to make yet another defense of his light heavyweight title this weekend (Sat. February 8, 2020).

“Bones” will go head-to-head with Dominick Reyes from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. In fact, Jones claims he himself selected Reyes as his next opponent, as opposed to another option such as Corey Anderson, who has been calling for a shot at the 205-pound title for some time now. During the UFC 247 media call this week, Jones elaborated on why he chose Reyes as his next opponent. (H/T MMA Junkie)

“It’s a great fight for me, just because he’s undefeated and he’s the toughest guy out here right now,” Jones said. “We had the choice of whether we were going to fight Corey Anderson or Dominick Reyes. That was the conversation I had with the UFC, and I chose Dominick Reyes because me and my coaches watched Corey fight and watched Dominick and we saw that Dominick was finishing people.

“I like this guy. I like Corey Anderson, and he can grind out a 25-minute fight and match my cardio. But Corey Anderson doesn’t really finish people like that. Dominick can finish people, which is way more of a challenge, way more scary of a fight. And that’s exactly why I did it.”

Jones has established himself as, arguably, the greatest mixed martial artist of all time over the course of his career. He has also proven to be an extremely dominant champion. Now, he’ll welcome yet another undefeated challenger, who brings some serious knockout power to the table, along with a tremendous athletic resume.

With that being said, Jones doesn’t think Reyes is bringing anything he hasn’t seen before. “”Bones” has faced the knockout artists, the jiu-jitsu specialists, wrestlers, and elite strikers; besting them all, and oftentimes, at their very own game. However, Reyes, who holds a record of 12-0 at the moment, is very confident he will be the one to hand Jones his first-ever legitimate loss inside the Octagon.

Reyes comes off of a first-round knockout win over ex-middleweight king Chris Weidman, and has also downed the likes of Volkan Oezdemir, Ovince Saint Preux, and Jared Cannonier throughout his UFC run. A win over Jones would solidify the 30-year-old in the record books forever.

What do you think about Jones saying he picked Reyes over Anderson?