June - 2016
SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
40
have something more than a single
win — a decision over Dustin Or-
tiz — on your resume before you
take on one of the best pound-
for-pound fighters on the planet.
And you need to have more than
four fights at flyweight (or whatev-
er weight class you’re fighting at)
overall.
And therein lies the problem. Reis,
20-6 overall, has a wealth of expe-
rience, but doesn’t really have the
name value of a Henry Cejudo, Jo-
seph Benavidez, or John Dodson.
He hasn’t been in the division long,
and is 4-2 overall since 2012, with
one finish. There’s nothing on his
resume to suggest he has anything
to offer Mighty Mouse, yet by vir-
tue of that lone against Ortiz, he
has been given a chance, slim as it
might be, at gold.
Why? Because the rest of the divi-
sion has already lost to Johnson,
sometimes repeatedly, and because
those who haven’t are all coming
off losses.
Realistically, the UFC should have
seen this coming, and planned ac-
cordingly. A third fight with Bena-
videz would have been a more fan-
friendly fight at this point, but he’s
set to coach on the next season
of The Ultimate Fighter (whether
there’s any merit left in that show
in another question). It’s great that
the show is going to bring in some
fresh blood — and a new challeng-
er, in the form of whoever wins the
tournament—for the 125lbweight
class, but it seems a tad late. This
should have been done last year,
before the list of viable challengers
for Johnson dried up.
Or, the UFC needs to let him go
up in weight, while holding his fly-
weight title, and stalk the bantam-
weight ranks. At this point, he has
earned it, and flyweight is simply
too thin for the UFC to continue
pitting fighters who aren’t ready
for the shot against one of the best
in the world.
