Dominick Reyes' body language at his post-UFC 247 news conference said it all.
The heady challenger arguably had done enough to dethrone Jon Jones as the light heavyweight champion Saturday night in Houston, but was on the unfortunate end of a controversial unanimous decision (49-48, 49-48, 49-46) in favor of "Bones." Reyes, coming off his first professional loss (12-1), was equal parts dejected over the decision and proud of his performance.
"Disappointment, first of all," he said. "I am proud of myself, though. I went out there and fought with all my heart. A goal for this fight was to make it an ESPN Instant Classic and I feel like I accomplished that today.
"Man ... man. I do feel disrespected. One of the judges had it 49-46. Who are you? I might want to have a word with you," Reyes said. "But other than that, man, I know I won that fight. I know I won that fight. I was in that fight. I don't have to watch the replay. I was there. I made Jon Jones look like just a man. I brought the fight to him and man ... just f—ing, man."
Reyes took it to Jones over the first three rounds, especially the first frame where he dropped the champ in a heap during an offensive onslaught. Although the champ used leg kicks and wrestling to win the fourth and fifth rounds, it wasn't clear that his hand would be held up when the judges turned into their scores. Reyes, whose longest fight prior to this was only three rounds, felt like he won the fight, but is still encouraged after the decision didn't go his way.
"For me, this is huge validation," Reyes said. "This is my very first time going five rounds in my entire career ... against Jon Jones, who is arguably the greatest of all time, and I put it on him. I took it to him. I feel like I'm the people's champ."
Jones didn't dismiss a rematch with Reyes following his win Saturday night.
"If the people want to see me fight Dominick again," Jones said, "it's going to be up to Dana White to find a way to make that happen."