Reyes says Jones is moving to heavyweight because ‘those guys are slow’

“He’s moving to heavyweight because those guys are slow, you do realize that, right?”

Dominick Reyes believes Jon Jones has vacated his UFC light heavyweight title because he can’t keep up with the 205ers anymore.

Reyes, who dropped a controversial decision to Jones at UFC 247, believes ‘Bones’ is moving up to heavyweight ‘because those guys are slow’.

“Aw, c’mon man!” Reyes told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani in a recent interview when asked about Jones vacating the light heavyweight title and hinting of a move up to heavyweight (h/t MMA Fighting). “That was my reaction. Like, c’mon bro. Seriously? That’s whack. But then it was like, alright, whatever. The show must go on. Either way I’m fighting, either way I’m going for the belt. The whole goal was to get the belt anyway. It sucks that I can’t beat Jon for it at this time. But I’ll catch him. I’ll catch him later.”

“It was a little bit shocking. But at the same time, not because I try to look at things from other peoples’ perspectives and what they’ve been through and what leads to whatever decision they make and if you look at it, Jon, I think, truly in his heart felt like he won that fight unanimously and he has nothing else to prove in the division. Either that or he’s like, ‘Hey man, I could really lose my belt to this guy. Let’s avoid that and we’ll just vacate and go up to heavyweight and make a run at the title.’”

“He’s moving to heavyweight because those guys are slow, you do realize that, right? He can’t keep up with us anymore. After what me and Thiago did to him, he’s like, ‘Man, I need to go up. These guys are getting too fast, they’re getting too athletic, they’re getting too good. The heavyweights are still slow. I can do my thing against them.’ I think he sees that there are better matchups for him at heavyweight than there are at light heavyweight.”

Jones soon caught wind of Reyes comments and responded with the following derogatory tweets.

“I literally had to leave it all out there the night I beat Gus, my last fight I ended comfortably scoring points. Gus pushed me to a place I have still yet to see again.”

“Both DC and Gus faced fatalities in our rematches, now for the first time in my career I’m terrified to have a rematch? If you believe this narrative, slap yourself.”

With Jones officially out of the title picture, the vacant light heavyweight championship will be up for grabs when Reyes takes on Blachowicz in the UFC 253 co-main event.

“Jan is a beast by the way,” Reyes said of the matchup. “I’ve been impressed with Jan for years. I’ve been trying to fight Jan since I beat Cannonier because I respect the guys game. He is a very technical striker, he has more power than Jon. I think he is a more dangerous fight for me to be 100 percent honest. He is a counter-striker with a lot of power and has a BJJ black belt. He is very technical everywhere. Jon doesn’t counter-strike and has no power and is not that technical, he is just tricky.”

With a win over Blachowicz and the light heavyweight title in his possession, ‘The Devastator’ believes Jones will soon come crawling back to the light heavyweight division.

“At this point, I don’t really give a sh*t about Jon Jones, to be 100 percent honest,” Reyes said. “He’s irrelevant in my life now. So as far as I’m concerned, who? It doesn’t matter anymore. We’ll see what the future holds. Here’s what I’m thinking though: I win this belt, it’s gonna create all kinds of hype. Everybody’s gonna be talking about, ‘You didn’t beat Jon, blah, blah, blah, and Jon’s gonna be like, ‘Yeah. Pay-per-view. Alright,’ and then we’re gonna come together. I’m gonna be the champ, he’s gonna try to get my belt, and I’m gonna smash him. Or not and I’ll never see him again. Either that’s gonna happen or it’s not. Either way I’m still moving along and I’m good.”

UFC 253 is scheduled to take place next next month, September 26 at a TBD location.