Before last weekend’s card, I asked Dominick Reyes if Jon Jones would go into the dark places that needed to be visited if their UFC 247 main event turned into a gritty five-round battle. Reyes agreed that Jones would, and the champion did just that, methodically coming back from an early deficit to eke out a close (one bizarre 49-46 score notwithstanding) decision victory. Now we can debate the decision and let’s do that. For the record, I had Reyes winning 48-47, but with the third being a round that could have gone either way, I have no problem with the final verdict; in other words, this was no robbery. But what’s not up for the debate is that fact that Jones has championship level heart, something that we haven’t always seen because he’s been so dominant. But when he needed to step up, he stepped up. It may not have been spectacular, but it was gritty, and sometimes we need to see that from the greats to show that despite all the accolades, they’re still human.
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