Dominick Reyes rips Jon Jones for stringing everyone along then retiring: 'He ran from me'
Reyes (14-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) took issue with the way Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) dragged things out with his title-unification bout against Tom Aspinall, before opting to relinquish his UFC heavyweight title and retire.
However, it didn't take long for Jones to walk back his decision, as he has now re-entered the drug testing pool and wants to compete on the expected White House event next July.
"He does this thing that he does, and he just strings everyone along and lies and tells this and says that," Reyes said on the "Pound 4 Pound" podcast. "Then he's smug about it. He's arrogant. He's not being genuine, man. We just want a genuine answer out of you, not some bull crap, string everybody along.
"Are you going to fight or not? That's what everybody is mad about, is he's just trying to play with all of us. If you're done, say you're done. If you're not done, say let's go. 'Put out more money' or 'I want this,' and that's it. Don't say, 'We'll see – there's a big announcement coming out,' and then it's nothing."
Reyes can relate to Aspinall's situation. Reyes gave Jones arguably his toughest test when he was edged out in a controversial decision loss in their light heavyweight title bout in February 2020. Jones went onto vacate his belt before making a move up to heavyweight three years later.
"If you guys don't remember, after that fight I lobbied for the rematch for the entire year, and he dropped the belt and went to heavyweight," Reyes said. "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."
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