CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Eleven fights into his MMA career, Dominick Reyes thinks he’s finally starting to get the shine he deserves.
The undefeated light heavyweight contender gets the first main event matchup of his career Friday at UFC on ESPN 6 in Boston, and the former collegiate defensive back-turned-martial artist is looking to make a definitive statement to book himself into a title fight in 2020.
“It’s a huge deal,” he said at a Wednesday media day for UFC on ESPN 6. “This is my first main event ever. This isn’t just in the UFC – I’ve never really gotten the opportunity to be a main event. In my mind, it’s like I almost never got the respect I deserved.
“But now I worked for it, I waited my turn, and now I’m here and I’ve got the main event. I’m excited, I can’t wait, (and) I love the matchup.”
That matchup sees Reyes (11-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) take on a divisional newcomer, but former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman is anything but a rookie, and Reyes knows and respects his credentials and says the mere act of moving up to 205 pounds immediately puts “The All-American” into the upper echelon of the UFC’s light heavyweights.
“Chris is up there, man,” he said. “He took out Anderson (Silva). Anderson, at the time, was the greatest of all time. Chris is, at least, top 20 somewhere.”
Reyes also admitted Weidman’s personality will make the matchup a more a pleasant experience for him from a personal standpoint, given the fact that there is no animosity between the pair heading into the contest.
“The thing about Chris, he’s a good guy outside of fighting, too,” he explained. “It’s not like he’s a scumbag, which wouldn’t matter anyway. But it’s good to be fighting a good dude. So whatever happens, the better man will win.”
While the respect is clearly there for Weidman (14-4 MMA, 9-4 UFC), Reyes is nonetheless laser-focused on the job at hand, which is scoring an impressive victory to position himself as the next man in line to face Jon Jones in 2020.
“My plan is to win emphatically,” he said. “I want a finish. My goal is to finish every fight. If I don’t finish, I feel I’ve done a disservice to myself. I don’t know if God has that plan for me to get an emphatic finish, or whether I have to go through another war. Whatever the case may be, I’m only making my way towards the title.”
That means a shot at Jones, who has looked virtually untouchable in the octagon through his MMA career. However, Reyes thinks he has the answer to the questions Jones poses, and his reason for that thinking is a simple one.
“Because I’m me. We’ll talk about that after this fight. But right now, I’m worried about Chris.”
And when the fans react to Reyes’ performance on Friday night, the native of Victorville, Calif., said he simply wants to be seen as the man to face Jones next. When asked what he wanted fans to say about his performance, he suggested: “He’s the one. Get him to fight Jon.”
UFC on ESPN 6's Dominick Reyes targets 'emphatic finish' to set up title meeting with Jon Jones
