Athletes
Dominick Reyes Just Wants To Have Fun
Returning To The Octagon For The First Time Since November 2022, Dominick Reyes Can't Wait To Throw Hands Again
Fighters are a different breed. Take Dominick Reyes for example. The former world title challenger is back in the Octagon for the first time since November of 2022 to face Dustin Jacoby in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night co-main event in Louisville.
He wants to win, perhaps more than usual since he’s on a four-fight losing streak. But no matter the outcome, he wants to have fun. To most of us, the idea of getting into a fistfight with someone who has trained to win that fistfight is the furthest thing from fun.
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But fighters like Reyes are a different breed.
“I've come back around to just enjoying it and being grateful and trusting in my Lord Jesus Christ and not stressing so much about the outcome and not stressing about the little stuff,” he said. “I want to go out there and have fun again and enjoy it and throw hands. This fight's going to be awesome. It's going to be a war and I'm so excited about it.”
Through 16 pro fights, 10 of them in the UFC, Reyes has had plenty of experience and a host of big wins. But what was the most fun he’s had in a fight?
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“The most fun I ever had was against Jon Jones,” said Reyes of the 2020 title fight that many believe he won. “That was definitely the most fun I've ever had. And then probably OSP (Ovince Saint Preux). The first time I ever really had a lot of fun was against OSP.”
By the time Reyes faced Saint Preux in October of 2018, he was 9-0 as a pro with three wins in the UFC (including a knockout of Saturday’s headliner, Jared Cannonier). Saint Preux was a veteran test, and “The Devastator” passed it with flying colors, winning a shutout decision on the Khabib Nurmagomedov-Conor McGregor card in Las Vegas.
“That was the first time I got to really be me and just fight somebody who was super tough, who could take what I could give,” said Reyes. “And he was really dangerous, so it was like I was just very locked in, and I was seeing everything, and I was moving. Every time I would move, he would miss, and everything I was doing was correct, just all instinct. That was the first time I realized to myself that I am as good as I am. That was the first time I really believed myself – ‘Yeah, you are good. You are that guy. You are f**king badass.’ Before that, it was like I had so many questions that I had to answer for myself. I was finishing guys fast, so it was like, am I really this good? And then when I fought OSP, it was a long fight and he took a lot of damage and he got me a couple of times real good and it was like, I can take a punch, I can do what I want in the fight, I can dictate the pace. I'm a complete fighter now.”
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After two more wins over Volkan Oezdemir and Chris Weidman, Reyes almost shocked the world against Jones. That was a fun night, too.
“With Jones, it was just freaking awesome,” he said. “It was a whole lifetime of work that came together in one night and I showed up, ready to go, everything. I woke up excited, I showed up excited, and I finished the fight with a smile on my face.”
Then the scorecards were read. Reyes admits to being a little bitter, but also that he may not have been ready to be champion at that point in his life.
“It's just like it all happened the way it was supposed to happen,” he said. “It wasn't my time. I think I wasn't going down the right path. And if I would've won that fight, I would've become a not nice person. Everything happens for a reason, that's all I could really say. God had a plan for me at that time. I've looked at it a million different ways, man. Believe me, I've been bitter, I've been mad, I've been angry. I've been all kinds of different emotions, but, at the end of the day, everything happens for a reason. I did everything I could, and the world saw what happened that night.”
The fight world moved on, and so did Reyes. Seven months later, he was in Abu Dhabi, fighting for the vacant 205-pound crown against Jan Blachowicz. He lost that one, and the next to Jiri Prochazka, and the next to Ryan Spann.
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“The next three after Jones, it was just me trying to get it all together,” he said. “I got caught in my last fight, the fight before with Jiri, I just wanted to bleed. And I did knock him out at one point. And then the Jan fight, it was me trying to do more than I should have outside of fighting.”
It’s key to point out that Reyes entered the UFC with just six fights. He was 12-0 when he faced perhaps the best fighter of all-time. So if you believe in the idea of growing pains while growing up in public, it applies here.
“I'm learning my lessons in front of the whole world,” he said. “I didn't lose fights before I got in the UFC. I didn't have these situations and all that where I came in the UFC at like 13-3 or 14-2; I didn't lose. But when I lost, I lost in front of the whole world.”
Dominick Reyes Fight Week Interview | UFC Louisville
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Dominick Reyes Fight Week Interview | UFC Louisville
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I ask Reyes if he’s been overthinking everything too much.
“A hundred percent,” he said. “It's not easy. The ups and downs, the mental battles. I think the mental part is much harder than any of it. Dealing with the ups and downs of fighting is a lot harder to deal with than the actual fight. The fight is easy. Even being in the locker room is hard, and once you go in there and the bell rings, it's like a relief. It's like, finally, I'm here. And I've actually been honing that and not getting too high or too low beforehand. And then when I get in there, just fight.”
And have fun. Well, if this last comment is any indication, that’s exactly what Reyes, a former star safety for the Stony Brook Seawolves, is planning on.
“I think it's a perfect matchup for me - and he's a quarterback,” he said of Jacoby, a former college signal caller. “I love hitting quarterbacks. It's like a dream come true. How often do you get to hit a quarterback?”
UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs Imavov took place live from KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky on June 8, 2024. See the final Prelims & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
