UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones was charged with two misdemeanours following his altercation with drug-testing agents in March.
The incident took place in March when drug-testing agents showed up at the home of Jones to collect some blood samples. However, the champ was uncooperative in his response, which led to an altercation with the agents. Jones was asked to provide a urine sample but was unable to, and he was given another opportunity to give a blood sample. Still, instead, the fighter went on to ask the agents–one of them named Crystal Martinez– If they had money and he would sue them.
Jones also reportedly took the testing agent’s cellphone and said, “Do you know what happens to people who come to my house? They end up dead.” The agents are in league with UFC’s anti-doping partners, the Drug-Free Sports Agency and are known to conduct random tests on fighters to prevent illegal substance abuse before a game.
One of the agents[Martinez] stated she was terrified during the altercation and was afraid the fight might get physical with her. Jones addressed the issue in the since-deleted post, saying he was “caught off guard by the unprofessionalism” of the agents and that he may have used derogatory words. However, he denied getting violent with them.
“I was recently visited by testers while I was celebrating a birthday and taking a nap,” Jones said in April. “Upon waking up. I was caught off guard by the unprofessionalism and protocol by one of the testers, which caused frustration, leading me to use some profanity I regret. However, I want to emphasize that at no point did I threaten, get in anyone’s face, raise my voice to anyone, or engage in any form of assault.
“It’s unfortunate that false news has been spread without proper fact-checking. I want to assure you that I will vigorously defend myself against these baseless accusations. The truth is, the incident simply did not occur.”
The agents have decided to press charges, and ‘Bones’ will face one count of assault and one count of interference with communications. The fighter is scheduled to appear in court on July 17th. If found guilty, he could be fined $500-1000 and sentenced to a year in jail.
The news may pose a new setback amongst a series of others as the fighter was set to face Stipe Miocic in November.
