LONDON – Volkan Oezdemir needed no more assurance that he came out ahead at UFC on ESPN+ 5 than words from Dominick Reyes’ corner.

“Even the coaches of Reyes came to me before the judges announcement and after the judges announcement and told me I was winning the fight,” Oezdemir told reporters backstage after his split-decision loss to Reyes at UFC on ESPN+5 from The O2. “I don’t want to say it’s (expletive). Maybe I should have produced a little more, but I clearly won the fight.

“I was the better man tonight, and unfortunately the judges didn’t see it that way.”

Reyes (11-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) took home two 29-28 scores while one judge scored it the same for Oezdemir (15-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC), who suffered his third straight UFC loss after opening his UFC tenure 3-0.

“I think he was good, but I don’t think he was as good as other people I’ve fought,” Oezdemir said. “But at the end of the day, he passed the test. I definitely think I’m going to take the fight if we get a rematch.”

Back to the drawing board is the plan for the Swiss fighter, who rocketed up the light heavyweight ranks only to fall short in a title fight against then-champion Daniel Cormier early last year.

Oezdemir hoped to face surging light heavyweight Thiago Santos or Corey Anderson before he heard the bad news. Although he’d still like those opportunities, he needs to rethink his next steps.

“Definitely a lot of different opponents I’ll be interested in fighting,” Oezdemir said.

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