Is Dominick Reyes just naive enough to win this fight?
Yup, we’re going to continue going back in time and finding historical analogies to other major upsets to try to make the case another big one could happen. Remember UFC 162 fight week? That week, Anderson Silva was at the height of his powers. He was UFC middleweight champion for nearly seven years.
Chris Weidman? He was supposed to be just the next contender of the month. He was an unbeaten fighter, sure, he had finishing skills, sure, but he had never been really tested and never had been on a stage anywhere nearly as big as the one a fight with Silva presented.
All week long, Weidman seemed unflappable, to the point that you wondered if he even understood that he was supposed to be nervous.
You know what happened from there.
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Reyes, who coincidentally pummeled Weidman to earn his shot against Jones, seems to have the same credentials Weidman brought to the Silva fight: undefeated, obvious finishing skills, and the same questions about taking such a major step up.
So far, Reyes doesn’t seem fazed by the prospect of fighting Jones, either. You can say that about many other fighters who have faced Jones, too, and things didn’t end so well with them. Will Reyes be different?