Dominick Reyes competed on the main card of UFC 229, defeating Ovince St. Preux by way of unanimous decision.
The light heavyweight also witnessed the post-fight brawl between UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor, a brawl that Reyes feels has blemished both competitors.
“I know that it’s more of a blemish on the guys involved, than the sport as a whole,” he said at the UFC 229 post-fight press conference. “Because in the sport as a whole you have performances like mine tonight. ... A lot of great things happened tonight. Even though that happened, that’s on the guys that did it, not on the organization itself.”
Nurmagomedov had his purse withheld by the NSAC for his involvement in the brawl, while more punishments should be announced in the future.
Opinions vary back and forth on how event security handled the brawl, but Reyes is coming to their defense.
“It’s really hard to prepare for that even if you have a ton of security around,” said Reyes. “That’s like one of those, you blink, and now all hell broke loose. So I’m not going to blame it on security. I’m going to blame it on the guys involved.”
Reyes now holds four wins under the UFC banner and currently sits at #6 in the UFC Light Heavyweight Division rankings.
