In the Twitter age of MMA, beef, suggestions, and fight bookings can all happen right in the palm of your hand. Some fighters rely on their quick wit to get where or what they want. Other rely on their managers to help them get by. All fighters though seem to use Twitter to keep their pulse on what is happening in the UFC and beyond.
Newly announced challenger to Jon Jones' title, Dominick Reyes has a slightly different method for staying up to date on the comings and goings of the Twittersphere.
"My dad actually keeps me updated on everything," Reyes said to The Top Turtle Podcast.
With all of the smack talk travelling between top contenders for Jones' title, each of them pining to be the one chosen, there were plenty of insults hurled Reyes' way. He recalls one such instance with Corey Anderson where his dad got particularly fired up.
"You know what Corey [Anderson] said today?" he recalls his dad informing him.
Reyes, the good son that he is, worked to calm his dad down.
"I said 'Corey's fine. He's just frustrated, dad."
"I know, but he's talking about you," his dad responded.
And that relaxed approach seems to be working for Reyes with Jones too now that their fight is announced. The fact that he doesn't really care or put much effort into it, he feels, had made Jones even more confused.
"He doesn't really know how to take me. He doesn't know if I'm sincere or not, or messing with him," Reyes said. "To be honest, I don't know either. I'm just kind of messing with him and it seems to be working - I think I got under his skin a little bit not even trying, so that's cool."
That effort that other fighters put into their Twitter games seems superfluous to him, and instead he just wings it.
"Say one moment I want to say something, I just say it. I don't really put much thought into it," he said. "I know a lot of guys put a lot of thought into the things they say on Twitter and things like that, but I just kind of say it - it's not really premeditated."
We'll see how much he's in Jones' head, or how much it'll matter, come February 8th when the two square off. In the meantime, his dad will have to keep him informed of all of Bones' outline shenanigans.
(2:30 mark)
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Author Daniel Vreeland is a co-founder of the Top Turtle Podcast, a regular contributor to the UG Feed, and a brown belt in Jiu-Jitsu at New England Submission Fighting in Amherst, Massachusetts.