Dominick Reyes is finished letting the UFC’s commentary sales space go by unchecked.
Reyes was among the many many notable performances this previous Saturday at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi. The 2-time mild heavyweight title challenger closed out the preliminary portion of the cardboard with a stellar first-round knockout of Azamat Murzakanov, getting him again on a win streak. It wasn’t till hours after the battle, although, that he sat down to look at it again, and he was none too happy to listen to Daniel Cormier’s commentary specifically.
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On Monday’s version of “The Ariel Helwani Present,” Reyes defined his social media lambasting of Cormier, which he stated was in response to the latter’s off-base feedback throughout his Murzakanov battle.
“You tend to be just a little biased,” Reyes instructed Uncrowned of Cormier. “You take a look at all the opposite sports activities on this planet — extraordinarily skilled [commentary], extraordinarily ready and able to go. It is shade commentary. It is not simply speaking about meat pies in the course of the battle.
“The entire thing is simply me holding them accountable. The one folks in the entire UFC which might be by no means held accountable is the announcers. So it is time.”
Reyes, 36, hasn’t essentially been fixating on his dissatisfaction with the UFC’s commentary, he stated. But he is bitten his tongue after noticing these points through the years.
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In his latest battle, particularly, Reyes could not assist however communicate out after the end result of broadcast errors he believes had been made.
“I’ve watched fights my complete life, and I’ve heard them say some outlandish issues, and I am like, ‘You are simply going to get away with that? No person’s going to examine them on that, ever?'” Reyes stated. “However we do one thing within the cage, or one thing occurs, and everyone’s speaking about it and writing about it. So I am like, hey, why do not we put the strain again on the media, again on the commentary to be nice at what you do. Not simply good.”
Cormier responded to Reyes’ gripes with a handful of follow-up posts Saturday. The UFC Corridor of Famer defended himself and later highlighted what he believes was the problem in a standalone tweet, however Reyes famous that Cormier was solely partially proper when he talked about an edited highlights package deal launched by Paramount.
Coincidentally, Cormier spent a majority of his profession competing at 205 kilos, whereas Reyes has been a mainstay of the division. So a battle could be the best resolution to this beef if Cormier had been nonetheless lively. However Reyes clarified that he has no private drawback with Cormier. He simply desires to see folks in his position ship the very best quality attainable.
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“I’ve no drawback with him; I simply need him to do higher. Backside line: Do higher,” Reyes stated.
“I am not mad and attacking him. It is, hey, we have to do higher. Total. That is its personal factor now. It is not straight you. All people within the broadcast sales space must be on discover now that they should really present up, and do their analysis and able to go, as a result of if not, Dom’s YouTube channel is true there, and I will be calling you out. That is all it’s.”
A handful of issues make Cormier’s commentary stand out to Reyes. For starters, being thought-about one of many sport’s all-time greats provides Cormier a simple excuse to be lazy with preparation, Reyes believes. Moreover, Cormier has a notable historical past of coaching with a number of the sport’s greatest Russian and Dagestani fighters, like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev. Due to that, Reyes has seen what he believes is a transparent bias from Cormier every time Russian fighters compete and he is on the decision.
“[Cormier] was an awesome fighter, and I am not saying he wasn’t an awesome fighter,” Reyes stated. “As a commentator, he slacks off as a result of he lives off of his double champ standing. It looks like he would not do the analysis and work as a result of he is ‘double champ’ Daniel Cormier.
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“It has been years and years of him being biased [toward Russian fighters].”
With a while to course of the fallout from his win and his back-and-forth with Cormier, Reyes did admit that he was a bit out of line in sure respects.
“I’ll say, I did come off just a little arduous on Daniel, and I am sorry for that, calling him low IQ and stuff like that,” Reyes stated. “I used to be within the warmth of the second, and I do apologize for that. The opposite issues, I stand by what I stated, however I am sorry for attacking you straight. Actually.
“My preliminary warmth was just a little sizzling. That is not my character or who I actually am. I used to be simply within the second. Aside from that, I stand by what I stated. You have to be extra ready, my man.”
Reyes intends to proceed calling out points he sees with movies on his YouTube channel. In the meantime, he’ll do his greatest to battle his approach again to a lightweight heavyweight title shot.
