John McCarthy says Dominick Reyes should have won 48-47

Bellator commentator and veteran MMA official Big John McCarthy says he believes Dominick Reyes should have defeated Jon Jones 48-47 at UFC 247.

McCarthy is one of the most respected minds in the fight game and was someone who was instrumental in the creation of the Unified Rules of MMA and the judging scoring system. He holds judging and refereeing seminars and knows a thing or two about how to score a fight.

Speaking on the “Weighing In” podcast, host Josh Thomson asked McCarthy how he scored the controversial fight over the weekend at UFC 247 between Reyes and Jones. Though many scored the fight in favor of the challenger Reyes, the judges ultimately sided with Jones winning a unanimous decision 48-47, 48-47, and 49-46.

According to McCarthy, the judges got it wrong. Here’s what he said.

“Watching the fight, no doubt the two easiest rounds were the first round and the fifth round. The first round goes to Dominick Reyes, the fifth round goes to Jon Jones. The second round, it’s actually, in my opinion, the closest round in the fight, but there’s a moment with about 45 seconds left in the round, you see Reyes throw a combination that lands and you see him hurt Jon Jones, you see Jones start to back off, and then you see him going after him and he takes that round from that point. It was a close round, I might have had Jones up at that point, but Dominick Reyes takes the second round. And Dominick Reyes easily wins the third round,” McCarthy said, who told Thomson that he thought Jones won the fourth round, giving Reyes a 48-47 on McCarthy’s scorecard.

Although McCarthy thought Reyes should have earned the judges’ decision, he also admits that the fight was close enough that he would not consider it a robbery.

“It’s not a robbery. It’s a close fight,” McCarthy said.

Do you agree with Big John McCarthy that Dominick Reyes should have won 48-47?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 2/11/2020.