Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones spoke recently with John Morgan for MMAjunkie, and discussed spending two nights in jail following his arrest for driving violations. The latest tickets were in turn a violation of his probation, received for another driving incident, in which a pregnant woman suffered a broken arm.

The tickets were issued after Jones and Albuquerque police officer Jason Brown engaged in an argument. A bitter Jones cursed at Brown, while the officer passive aggressively escalated the situation. It began when the officer asked Jones for paperwork, then asked Jones a question, and then interrupted the requested response to demand the paperwork. The officer’s behavior didn’t get any better from there.

The vast majority of law enforcement officers do an extraordinarily hard job, protecting and serving, for not a lot of income, while maintaining high professional standards. However, officer Brown’s conduct that evening was unprofessional. 

For his part, Jones repeatedly swore at the officer, which is remarkably stupid at very, very, very best.

I’ve watched it quite a few times,” said Jones. “And I feel as if that officer, I think the moment he saw my face, he knew he was going to be giving me a hard time. I don’t know how to feel about it. I just feel like the guy really took advantage of his power, and it really hurt to be in that situation because I went to school to be a police officer, and I actually do have a lot of respect for law enforcement. But individuals like Officer Brown really, that’s the type of people who turn citizens away from being supporters.

Being in jail, it hurt me, being in there. I felt as if I was really let down by this officer in this situation. The system really let me down in this one. I’m not blaming them for anything. I definitely caused a lot of my own heartache, but in this situation, I really feel as if I was profiled and picked on.

Three days in jail for revving my engine – and now I have all these terms and conditions of my probation, all for revving my engine. I feel let down. But I’m a very optimistic person, and I always try to find the good in everything that happens in my life.

I think one of the biggest things driving me is I think my fans know that one thing about Jon Jones, or my friends know, is that I’m resilient. I try to represent ‘resilient.’ Never quitting. Vitor Belfort almost broke my arm. I continued to fight through that fight. Alexander Gustafsson had me bleeding, had me losing regular rounds, then the championship rounds, I pulled it together and dominated. Getting in trouble with the law and just continuing to move forward. Things I’ve been through in my childhood, things I’ve been through in my life, growing up the way I grew up, me knowing my own story, I’ve always moved forward, and I want people to be encouraged. Struggling with drug addiction, now being sober and owning it, kicking sobriety’s ass. I want to represent never giving up, no matter what.

There was a shirt made for me that said, ‘Unbroken,’ and I really take that slogan to heart. That’s my life’s motto now. Don’t break easy, no matter what you’re going through. Attitude is everything. You can do it no matter what. Chael Sonnen, I had a broken toe, and I finished that fight. Never quit. Never surrender. If I can do it, you can do it, too.

We all are resilient. We’re all stronger than what we think. Mind over matter. So yeah, I just feel like at the end of the day, when I win my belt back, it’s going to be that much sweeter because of all I went through to get there.

I just felt humbled. I felt re-grounded. I thought about what type of life I’ve created for myself, and how I’m blessed to have so much and how that could all be taken away.

Jon Jones fights Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197 on April 23, 2016 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.