UFC's Dominick Reyes Shows How to Counter Jon Jones' Elbow on TMZ Staffer

How the hell do you defend against those legendary Jon Jones elbow strikes?

UFC star Dominick Reyes believes he's got the answer -- and he's demonstrating his violent plan on one of our TMZ staffers!

Of course, Dom and Jon Jones are set to do battle at UFC 247 in Houston on Saturday -- in a fight for the UFC light heavyweight title. It's the biggest fight of Dominick's impressive career.

And, since Jon Jones recently came into the office and taught our own Lucas the art of the elbow strike ... we thought it would be a good idea to see if he could test out his skills on Dom!

The good news ... Reyes is ready and has a plan to keep Jon's elbows out of his mouth by essentially beating him to the punch.

"You gotta strike first," Reyes said while demonstrating his counterattack ... "It's so simple, it just might work!"

We also spoke with Reyes about why he's 100% confident he'll be the very first man to give Jones a legitimate L in the Octagon.

"It's just my time. Simple as that. I've worked my whole life for this."

Reyes says he's played out the first a million times in his head and couldn't be more ready.

As for Jones, he's the champ for a reason.