Dominick Reyes Gets Josh Hokit's Antics but Chooses to Be an Example

All right, I'm here with the dominator, Dominic Reyes.

He's down in Miami.

We'll be fighting on the main card of UFC 327.

Johnny Walker, he's, uh, you don't want to reveal your game plan.

Never in a boring fight, right?

When you're, when you've been approaching your camp and training for him, what is his biggest strength you feel you'll have to kind of neutralize to get your hand raised on Saturday ?

His biggest, probably his biggest strength is his explosiveness and his unpredictability, but I, I, it could be a.

Strength and a weakness, I guess.

So probably just his explosiveness is his biggest strength.

Let's talk about, uh, the old champion of your division, Alex Pereira, moving up again.

You've trained with him, gotten to know him a little bit.

Do you have any insight on how he's approaching his fight with Ciril Gane or how that fight will maybe play out with him moving up in weight?

Super cool for him, you know, to potentially be a three division champion, and in my opinion, the 3 hardest divisions in the UFC in the world, you know.

Um, that's, he wins that battle, he's undisputed baddest man on the planet of all time, you know, and that's.

Amazing accomplishment, something that nobody else has ever even come close to doing, so.

For him to be on the cusp of that is something really special, and I'm just glad to be able to witness it, you know.

You spent some time with him and Glover, and you talked about what, what great guys they were, as well as obviously killers in the cage, and you talk about your, you talk about your faith a lot.

Where, how has your faith in working with guys like Glover and Alex and these guys that, you know, are, are pretty grounded, um, helped you as a, as a martial artist.

So that's a really important thing to be grounded and like.

Trust your faith and trust in God's plan and then understand that you know he puts people in in front of us for a reason, you know, different challenges and different obstacles in front of us and as well as putting different people in our lives that influence us, um, but it's up to us, you know, as as.

Human beings who have free will to either accept those challenges and accept, you know, those lessons that were being taught or to deny them, you know, and I've been fortunate enough to be aware of the lessons I'm being taught and uh being really um receptive to everything that.

Uh, they taught me and we were, you know, just being around each other.

It was really, really, really positive experience for me, um, you know, hopefully for them as well, but it was, it was a really, really good to be around them and, uh.

Yeah, God's plan.

You are sharing this card with a buddy of yours, Curtis Blades, who has a big fight um against Josh Hawkint, a, a rising star, or so it appears in that heavyweight division.

I wanted to just get your opinion, because I think something that, you know, so respectable about you is you're able to go in there and be a killer, but then outside of the cage, you're also respectful, and like we talked about, just grounded, where, you know, Curtis's opponent, Josh Hoca goes out and he's , he can be inflammatory and say some derogatory things, but he's still able to maintain somewhat of a fan base.

Does that stuff ever bother you being In the UFC and kind of, obviously, it's like guilt by association, right?

Cause you're a UFC fighter, and the casuals see a guy like Hackett, right?

It's just like, you know, to each his own, every man is his own man, you know, and we, we choose our own path and we live our own lives, you know, he's chosen to be a character, you know, he's chosen to have a persona, he's chosen to do that.

He's um from, I guess, the newer generation of You know, young man who thinks they have to be this and do that to get the money, to get the fame, to get, you know, the respect and.

The bigger fights, and it has worked out for him, you know, like it or not, he's unranked fighting number 4 in the world, which is, you know, it's, it's worked out for him, whether it's because he's talking or because he's 80, and he was, he was in the NFL and he's an athletic guy, and he's powerful, and all those things, which is who he is, but I think the character part of it is he's just trying to entertain, you know, that's.

Nowadays, that's what the kids want, it's what the people want, it's kind of like.

What have you done for me lately?

What's the flavor of the month?

What's cool?

What's, you know, and he's really just saying, you know what, whatever, I'm gonna be a character.

This isn't who I really am.

If it is who it is, and that's who he is, but like, I'm gonna do this.

I've made this decision consciously as as a taking this into my career, and hopefully I could parlay it into whatever else after or get more fans or more exposure or more media, you know, versus like a guy like myself or Curtis, you know, just respectful and.

True martial arts, hardworking, you know, family first, you know, God, family, country, we, we, you know, very.

My thing is when I'm done.

And my son grows up cause I just had a son in December, you know, I want him to look back on what I did and what I said and be proud of me, you know, and for when I'm raising him, uh, as a man, I want him to, I want, I wanna lead by example, right?

So like.

I, I tell him lessons about life and stuff, and then he looks back at my interviews like, Dad, what are you talking about, Dad?

You were acting like a complete a-hole.

Like what do you, this isn't, so it's only for me, not for you, you know, so that's a big part of it, you know, be a good human, be a good man, but I also have a responsibility to the younger generation.

Kids look up to me, but my own son, you know, he's, he's gonna see these interviews, he's gonna hear these things and.

What's he gonna remember about his dad?

How's the story gonna be written, and, you know, I'm proud to say that.

I know he's gonna be proud of what I've done and what I've said, and how I've carried myself.

It's always a pleasure to talk to you.

I, I really have so much respect for you as uh inside the cage, but also like we just talked about outside the cage, man.

Good luck this Saturday, uh, we'll see you soon.

Thank you, Doug.

God bless, brother.