Dominick Reyes believes former foe, Jon Jones, has turned the MMA fanbase against himself following his recent retirement fiasco.
Six weeks ago, UFC CEO Dana White revealed that Jon Jones officially stepped away from fighting and vacated his UFC heavyweight title in the process. This in turn ended the long-awaited (and difficult to book) fight between Jones and UFC’s interim champion Tom Aspinall, but at least the division gained some direction. Aspinall was promoted to undisputed champion and is already booked to defend his crown against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 this October.
Just a few weeks later and Jones was already back in the UFC testing pool, eager to make his return at The White House card in July 2026. Jones’ quick retirement left fight fans with a bad taste in their mouth and it’s something that Reyes believes hasn’t gone away.
“I think because he does this thing that he does, and he just strings everyone along, and he lies, and tells this and says that,” said Reyes during an appearance on the Pound-4-Pound podcast. “And he’s smug about it and arrogant. He’s not being genuine. We just want a genuine answer out of you, bro. Not some bullcrap string everybody a long, ‘Oh, well, maybe this, uhhhh.’ Are you going to fight or not? I think that’s what everybody’s mad about, trying to play with all of us.
“If you’re done, say you’re done. If you’re not done, say, ‘Let’s go, but I want more money, or I want this.’ That’s it. Don’t say, ‘We’ll see! There’s a big announcement coming out, and then it’s nothing. I think that’s why people were so mad.”
In addition to Jones’ retirement flip-flop, fight fans are still bummed out that “Bones” didn’t give Aspinall the chance to fight him and unify the UFC heavyweight belts. Reyes, who lost a competitive decision to Jones in a title fight back at UFC 247 in 2020, also knows what it feels like to want a shot at Jones only to be avoided.
“I did!” said Reyes when asked if he had wanted a rematch with Jones. “If you guys don’t remember after that fight, I lobbied for the rematch for an entire year and he said, ‘Drop the belt’ and went to heavyweight. Literally that’s what happened. People forget that, too. He ran from me! He said, ‘You’re not paying me enough to fight that guy. He’s too dangerous.’ That was literally his response.”
