UFC 247 took place on Saturday, February 8th in Houston, Texas and was headlined by a Light Heavyweight title fight between Champion Jon Jones and number three ranked Dominick Reyes. Jones won with a somewhat controversial decision, handing Reyes his first professional loss while successfully defending his title for the 11th time.
Jon Jones originally won the title in 2011 with a 3rd round knockout of Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua.
Including each time he has won the undisputed title (twice) and the interim championship (once) as well as the 11 defenses, Jones has now won 14 UFC title fights – surpassing future Hall of Famer Georges St. Pierre. The record of 13 was set by GSP with his stoppage of then-middleweight Champion Michael Bisping in November of 2017 which Jones tied in July 2019.
Jones is seldom without controversy, inside the cage and out. UFC 247 was no different, although he was not to blame for any of the drama this time around. It was the Texas judges who made some very questionable scores in Saturday’s main event, as well as some other fights on the undercard that left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Judging from MMA Twitter (where the pulse of MMA fandom lies, plus or minus 1 million trolls), it would appear the overwhelming majority of fans scored the fight for Dominick Reyes and the Unofficial Scorecard from Rebel Report also saw the fight 48-47 for Reyes, after a total five rounds.
Unfortunately for the challenger and his loyal following, only three people have an opinion that matters as it pertains to how the fight is scored. Two of the judges saw it exactly the other way, 48-47 for the Champion, while one judge gave Jones four rounds to one, scoring it 49-46 in his favor. The latter score has drawn the ire of fans, and of course Dominick Reyes, who later told the media that he felt he won the fight.
The next challenger to Jones’ title might be determined this weekend, at UFC Fight Night: Anderson vs. Błachowicz 2 when number six ranked Light Heavyweight Jan Blachowicz looks to avenge a 2015 loss to number five ranked Corey Anderson. Note – Jones has already beaten contenders ranked one through four, hence the title contender implications of this weekend’s main event. This is all speculation of course, and much has been made about other possible future opponents for Jon Jones. Some of these opponents include potential super-fights with the UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic or the Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya, should the latter get past Yoel Romero at UFC 248 next month in Las Vegas.
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