First time I saw him was Volkan and he didn't impress me much. He seemed like a strong athletic guy with decent striking fundamentals but there's a ton of guys like that. A lot of people thought he lost that fight. Then vs Weidman he put him out in the 1st with an amazing left straight, but we still didn't get to see much, and he was fighting a former MW. Then we saw him take the fight to Jon Jones like no one has before. A lot of people think that he even won the fight. But people have been talking about Jon's poor boxing, boxing defense and footwork for years and how a tall, rangey striker with TDD would give him problems. So how good is Reyes, really? Is he going to be fighting at a high level for a long time, or was Jon just a favorable matchup for him?
He seems to have a very bright future. But like you said, it's just hard to tell. He hasn't really fought a lot of top competition in general. I mean he fought tough guys but many guys on his list of wins have holes or questions in their game too. I gotta think he will cotinue to fight at a top level though. Wonder if he'll get a rematch with Jones. I mean who else is there in 205 and I don't think Bones wants to go to HW.
From what I saw last night, he is the future of LHW. Seems to have a great chin, movement is good, durability is good, but athleticism is his key....He's what it looks like when an A-ish level althlete competes in mma. Is literally the fastest LHW, despite being one of the biggest. My prediction is when Jones moves up to fight Stipe, Reyes will run LHW.
I was very impressed with his cardio and footwork. Very Gus esque, but with more power to back it up.
He needs to work on his cardio, but he still beat Jones for the first 3 rounds and came to the fight undefeated, so...
It's tough to say because this same thing happened with Gus. I would say the fight was closer and more of a "probable win" in favor of Reyes or draw. But the point being that Gus had that big fight with Jones, which should have logically and on paper made him a dominant LHW only rivaled by Jones right? But Gus went on to lose to Rumble by KO, lose to DC in a close split decision, look bad against Jan Blastovich (spelled it wrong on purpose) despite winning, beat Glover by KO, get finished by Jones, and get finished by Anthony Smith. Well I guess he did face good competition, but outside of the DC fight - which he lost - he never really flashed that potential again. Reyes - like Gus - is obviously "good". It's just that he's never really been proven outside this Jones fight, which he lost a close decision ultimately. He has 2 good wins in his career, and how good are they really (OSP, and Cannonier). And he arguably lose against Volkan. It's very Gus-esque in that sense. I don't think anyone should be crowning Reyes yet. He looked great in this fight, he's obviously "good" but the question is how good. I wouldn't be surprised if he never saw UFC gold just like Gus. And if Jones goes to HW / vacates, I wouldn't be surprised if he was the next champion either, who knows.
Man, his cardio is legit. He just needs to pace himself better. He fought at a crazy pace those first 2 rounds.
After rewatching the fight, i see an argument for reyes. Personally, what i took away from it is that we have another exciting fighter and isnt bad on the mic. Fucking narrow shoulders though..
