In April, former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones was involved in a hit and run car accident. He went AWOL for a period, before surfacing and turning himself in for arrest.
Once he was located, the leadership of the UFC flew to Albuquerque for a meeting with him. Jones was stripped of his UFC belt, and suspended. In time, he pled guilty to felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident, was given 18 months of supervised probation and in late October was reinstated by the organization. If he meets the terms of his probation, the record will be expunged.
Jones had been scheduled to defend his title against Anthony Johnson. Daniel Cormier took his place and won, becoming the new light heavyweight champion.
Jones maintained almost complete media silence for over half a year, before doing a long interview with Ariel Helwani. In it, he made a curious claim – that after the arrest he was in no place to continue with the planned Johnson fight four weeks later, but if he had, the UFC would have let him fight.
“Obviously, they would have the power to say differently, but I really have a feeling that if I was ready to fight, they would have let me fight,” said Jones as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMAFighting. “Especially because there was no court date. I wasn’t proven guilty of anything at the time. I feel as if they would have let me fight. For sure.”
“I told them I wasn’t interested in fighting. I told them that I’ve wanted a break from fighting for quite a while. I told them that I didn’t feel as if I could really focus on my fight with so much lingering over me. I knew fight week for me would be hell. The fans were going to give it to me the way I deserved it. I didn’t really have the courage to go through that at the time.”
“I told them do whatever you guys have to do. They told me that we’re probably gonna strip you of the title and suspend you indefinitely. I said, ‘Honestly, I could give a f—.’ That’s actually what I said. Sure enough, they took the belt and they did what they had to do. Shortly after it really hit me that I didn’t have the belt anymore. That was a long day for me.”
“I didn’t fight for it, man. I had nothing to prove. That belt doesn’t solidify who I am as a fighter. It doesn’t. I’ve beaten a who’s who. I needed the break, man. I really needed the break. I’ve been an entertainer since I was 19 years old. Since the day I joined the sport, people were already hailing me as the new Anderson Silva and the future of the sport. I’ve always had a little bit of that expectation on me every fight that I’ve had. The pressure that I put on myself and the level I was fighting at, to get away from that belt for a while really set me free. Today, I really feel great.”
“They had never came to see me before about anything. They never traveled to come say hi or have dinner. The first time they came to Albuquerque to visit me was to take my belt away.
“Honestly, Lorenzo did seem like he really cared. Lorenzo seemed very genuine. He looked me in the eyes the whole time and said, ‘How are you doing?’ At the time, I didn’t know how I was feeling. I was all over the place emotionally. But at the end of the day, it was a business meeting still. It definitely wasn’t one that went in my favor.”
“Dana, you know, he’s a business guy. I don’t feel as if … I’m not gonna sit here and bash Dana. I think Dana is a business guy. Lorenzo is a business guy, too, but he just comes across as more genuine to me. So I prefer talking to Lorenzo when I do business.”
“I would like to be more of a company guy and do things right. But at the same time, I’ve been bent over quite a few times by them. It’s hard to see where I stand, man. I hope that the fans are aware of some of the shenanigans they pull.”
“I do feel as if, if I would have been ready to fight, then I wouldn’t have gotten suspended and my belt stripped away.”
An unnamed UFC official told MMAFighting that Jones’ claim that he would not have been suspended were he ready to fight is “100% innacurate.” The official said the decision to strip Jones was made prior to the trip to Albuquerque, the purpose of which was to offer Jones their support and to inform him of the decision. The official also said that they stayed in close communication throughout with Jones’ management, with his publicist, and with the fighter himself, and flew out again to Albuquerque for Jones’ plea hearing and court proceedings.
