UFC Fight Night 124 winner Marco Polo Reyes might move down to featherweight

ST. LOUIS – Marco Polo Reyes entered Sunday’s UFC Fight Night 124 looking to bounce back from his first loss in the octagon.

“The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America 2” veteran was on a three-fight winning streak when he crossed paths with fellow lightweight James Vick in May 2017. Less than three minutes into their UFC 211 bout, however, Vick stopped Reyes with punches. The setback, Reyes later admitted, gave him “a lot of doubts.”

Those doubts were placated at St. Louis’ Scotttrade Center. This time, it was Reyes’ (8-4 MMA, 4-1 UFC) hands that did it, exactly one minute into his meeting with Matt Frevola (6-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC).

“It definitely gives my confidence back,” Reyes said, with the help of an interpreter, after the FS1-televised preliminary card bout.

With another preliminary portion fight and an entire main card yet to happen then, Reyes could only hope his finish would be enough to grant him an added $50,000. He later found out it did. Reyes and Darren Elkins took “Performance of the Night” honors.

While it was quite the result for the understandably ecstatic Reyes, it was one that he wasn’t any really expecting.

“I was actually expecting a three-round fight,” Reyes said. “Very, very competitive fight, because Frevola is a good matchup.”

In fact, Reyes says he wasn’t even thinking about any results at all – rather, he was focused on doing his best. But one person who probably wasn’t that surprised with how it happened was another fighter who made a splash in the octagon in St. Louis.

Headliner Jeremy Stephens, who capped off the event with a TKO of fellow featherweight Dooho Choi, would go on to give Reyes credit for helping him prepare for Choi’s notoriously menacing right hand.

“The whole time, I’m worried about (Choi’s) right hand all camp, this and that,” Stephens said in his own backstage interview. “I’m like, ‘You know what, this guy doesn’t hit that hard.’

“I train with Polo Reyes, who’s a really hard-hitting guy. Tonight, he just folded somebody. And that’s at 155. And I train with him. So we were well-prepared.”

And since we’re talking about the UFC’s featherweight division, here’s one interesting piece of information: Reyes and his heavy hand might just be paying them a visit.

“I want to drop down to 145,” Reyes said. “So what I want to do is do a tryout. I’m going to train at 145 to see how everything goes and then I’m going to decide if I drop to 145 or if I stay at 155.”

To hear more from Reyes, check out the video above.

And for complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 124, check out the UFC Events section of the site.