UFC light heavyweight champion, Jon “Bones” Jones is back in trouble.
The embattled star was recently charged with battery after an incident in an Albuquerque strip club was revealed.
According to reports, Jones visited at TD’s Eubank Showclub in April. A cocktail waitress working there called police to her home claiming Jones slapped her inappropriately, pulled her down to his lap, and kissed her neck while she was at work.
The waitress told police he also placed her in a chokehold and picked her up off the ground. When she told him to stop, Jones allegedly kept touching her until he decided to leave. He was then charged with battery.
Court records show Jones failed to show up to a bond arraignment for the battery charge last month. Since he failed to appear, a bench warrant was issued. Online records also show Metro Court tried to send Jones a letter to let him know about the warrant, but it bounced back.
Since then, Jones went to pay the $300 cash bond on Sunday. Jones recently won a split decision on July 6th at UFC 239 over Thiago Santos. During the time a bench warrant was issued for his arrest for the alleged battery incident.
Jones is a New York State wrestler turned mixed martial arts champion. He has been living and training in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the popular Jackson-Winklejohn gym most of his career.
From cocaine metabolites to performance enhancing drugs being discovered in his system, Jones has had multiple issues. In Albuquerque alone he was accused of a hit & run crash with pregnant women fleeing the scene along with charges of drag racing.
In short, Jones is not a role model.
Contrary to his religious upbringing, Jones’ bad boy side has always come out through scandals. His repeated repudiations of his athletic archenemy, UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, have always felt like the burn of a man who wished he had the same out of competition respect that “DC” has earned.
Although, the reports are not convictions and the story is still unfolding, unfortunately, Jones is continuing his character spiral downwards in the court of public opinion.
As a black man and champion in a predominately white sport, Jones will always be a focal point. Does his alleged actions taint the pool of black excellence fighters like he and Daniel Cormier bring to the game?
In a melanin world, absolutely not, however, that is not the world that MMA currently lives in and that can be problematic in the macro sense of black athleticism in martial arts.
