Dominick Reyes on how he plans to deal with Jon Jones' notorious eye pokes

The undefeated Dominick Reyes is set for the biggest fight of his career this February as he takes on Jon Jones for the Light Heavyweight Championship. Given Jones' years of dominance and perceived invincibility, Reyes is a major underdog in the fight - a role that he seemingly cherishes.

Jones had the option of choosing to face Corey Anderson and Dominick Reyes and after assessing the situation with his team, decided that the latter would make for a better opponent. It's certainly a fight that's got some hype behind it, not only because of Jones' name-value but Reyes' emphatic finish over former Middleweight champion Chris Weidman.

Jones is notorious for using questionable methods at times, with the biggest accusation being with regards to his eye pokes. Jones has hardly been penalized when using it and Reyes acknowledged that he uses it during his fights. He told MMA Fighting that he may have to warn the referee in advance about it:

“It’s something where it is what it is. Not much I can do about it except give the referee an advanced 'hey man, please look out for this, he’s notorious for this'. It’s going to be hard for me to get in. I’m not going to run my face directly into fingers. It is what it is. It’s just another challenge that he presents.

Eye pokes can be a huge problem in MMA. Even Daniel Cormier - Jones' biggest career rival, has been accused of doing so. He used eye pokes in both fights against Stipe Miocic. Many believe that had he not done so in the first fight, he wouldn't have gotten a first-round knockout.

Even so, the use of eye pokes in the second fight didn't help as Miocic finished Cormier in the fourth round. However, the aftermath of it led to him getting surgery to fix a damaged retina. While we aren't directly accusing Jones or Cormier of intentional eye-poking, the nature of the gloves used in UFC allows for easy eye-poking. The consensus among many fans and experts is that UFC should introduce gloves that resemble the PRIDE FC gloves.

Either way, we hope to see a clean fight between Jones and Reyes. The card will also feature Flyweight Queen Valentina Shevchenko defend her title for the third time against Katlyn Chookagian.