‘Bring Your Belt, Not Your Special Sauce’

Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

Dominick Reyes made an emphatic statement last Friday night (Oct. 18, 2019) by knocking out Chris Weidman in under two minutes at UFC on ESPN 6 inside TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.

Afterward, “The Devestator” took to the mic to call for his Light Heavyweight title shot against division kingpin, Jon Jones. And during a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show, Dominick advised “Bones” to just bring his title to the fight, and not his “special sauce” if and when they collide.

An obvious dig at Jon’s past failed drug tests.

“Jon has a bad habit of letting his habits get the best of him. I don’t want any part of that, I just want the belt. Let’s party, do it in the Octagon. Just bring the belt, don’t bring anything else,” he said.

“Don’t bring any of your special stuff, your special sauce, as they would say. Just bring your belt, that’s all I want. Let’s run it bro, see who falls. If you want to talk all that, let’s run it if you want the smoke, let’s run it.”

While Dominick has pretty much made it clear there is no one in front of him at 205-pounds standing in his way of a a title shot, Jon threw a curve ball, perhaps trolling Reyes by saying he’d probably wait to face the winner of Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic at Heavyweight.

It’s those kinds of proclamations that make Reyes believe that Jon simply doesn’t want any part of him.

“I don’t know what he is doing. I think he’s trying to get a big fight. He clearly doesn’t want to fight me. He is getting his management to make excuses for him and asking his management to make it go away. ‘Hey, tell him why I can’t fight him,’” said Dominick mimicking Jon after his management team dismissed Dominick as his next challenge.

“That’s a clear indication that Jon doesn’t want to fight me and he doesn’t want to openly say it so he is asking his management to basically save him in this situation.”

With six convincing wins thus far inside the Octagon, it’s not a question of whether or not Reyes wil be thrown into the fire against Jones’ too quickly, as Reyes feels he is — and has been — more than ready to face the longtime champion.

“I’ve been training my whole life to fight Jon. In the beginning I started training to fight Jon. I am getting better, and better and better and I am ready to step in there with this man,” he said. “He is just a man, a regular man. He wasn’t even athletic enough to play on his high school football team. Like, come on.”

On that note, if Jon’s high school football skills weren’t up to par, his fighting resume is unrivaled, as he has taken on and defeated some of the best the sport has to offer on his road to becoming the best 205-pound fighter in MMA history.

Now, all Reyes can do is sit and wait to see if Jon wants to add him to his growing list of targets.