When Dominick
Reyes began his current winning streak a little less than a
year ago, it was a feel-good moment in the Octagon.
Now that he’s been able to string three consecutive finishes
together, Reyes is more than just a heartwarming redemption story —
he’s a genuine light heavyweight contender once again.
“Every opportunity in the Octagon is its own little universe. It
really is,” Reyes said in a backstage interview with the UFC. “The losses are completely
devastating. The wins are everything. In this organization, every
single win means everything — whether you’re barely working your
way up the ladder or not — because once you get knocked down a
couple rungs it’s really hard to build back up.
“I’m literally on my second UFC run, and the first one felt really
good but this one feels just a little bit better because I did fall
all the way down. And now I’m on the rise. One away from the
title.”
Reyes secured arguably his most impressive victory of that stretch
at UFC
314, when he rendered Nikita
Krylov unconscious with a left hand 2:24 into Round 1 of their
featured 205-pound encounter at the Kaseya Center in Miami on
Saturday night.
“He’s never been knocked out before in the UFC. So I didn’t expect
to knock him out,” Reyes said. “I prepared for a three-round war,
where we’re just sweating and fighting for every position. When you
train hard, the fight’s easy.”
Reyes is willing to put his left hand up against the best in the
sport today.
“My pull-two is the best in the business. There’s no question about
it,” he said. “I do things that MMA fighters don’t do. I can fight
forwards and backwards.”
In February 2020, Reyes gave Jon Jones one
of the toughest fights of his light heavyweight championship reign
at UFC 247. While more than a few observers thought “The
Devastator” deserved the nod in that bout, it sent him on something
of a tailspin, as three more defeats — all via KO or TKO — would
follow. With successive triumphs over Dustin
Jacoby, Anthony
Smith and Krylov, Reyes is close to the heights he reached some
five years ago.
“I’m one away,” he said. “There’s some interesting matchups
happening. We’ve got Jamahal
Hill and Khalli [Rountree] fighting. That would be fun to fight
the winner. Who wouldn’t want to see the rematch with Jiri
[Prochazka]? And [Aleksandar] Rakic, he’s up there….that would be a
fun fight as well.
“I’m trying to fight the best guys in the world and become the best
in the world.”
