As UFC gets closer to their 200th pay-per-view and the biggest show in the company’s history, the very precarious nature of champion’s health has once again caused a massive change in the main event of a title fight. In March, it was a leg injury to Junior Dos Santos that changed the course of that show and, quite possibly, Conor Mcgregor’s career. This time, it was the grudge match between Light Heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and former champion Jon Jones that has now fallen apart, but not in the way many people expected less than 7 days ago. As a result, Jon Jones will now fight for the interim Light Heavyweight title against top contender Ovince Saint Preux on April 23rd in the main event of UFC 197.
It was March 29th when Jon Jones sat in a Albuquerque, NM prison for a number of charges related to drag racing. The mere mention of Jones once again involved with the law started the chatter of a possible fight cancellation, but the charges merely led to an adjusted probation for the former title holder. Instead, a more significant incident was ignored for nearly 2 weeks prior, when Daniel Cormier was spotted at the NCAA Wrestling Championships in New York City with a noticeable limp. With the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament occurring across the country at the exact same time, Cormier was able to duck the spotlight for a few days, but his injury did not heal in time, leading to his stepping away from the title fight. But in a curious occurrence, the fighter considered to be next in line, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, was also unavailable to take up the fight due to an injury, this coming from a recent oral surgery that would prevent him from being able to wear a mouthpiece.
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The arrest of former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones on March 29, 2016 appears to be just the latest in a series of bad vehicular incidents in the life of the pound-for-pound world’s best mixed martial arts fighter. He is currently facing a parole violation, but the charges stemming from his verbal confrontation with the police, which was posted publicly on the internet, may stand to reduce the severity of that charge. Either way, there is little expectation that his upcoming title fight with Daniel Cormier will be affected.
According to Jones, he was was pulled over by local police after peeling away from a stop light on March 24th after showing off for some fans who had pulled up next to him. After being pulled over, Jones and the officer engaged in a back-and-forth verbal dispute when the officer accused Jones of drag racing and Jones retorted back with an expletive. As a result, he was charged by the officer with having an unclear license plate, being unable to maintain a traffic lane, breaking an ordinance regarding modified exhaust for revving his engine, drag racing and exhibition driving. The latter two charges are the most dangerous as they are the ones that can lead to a violation of his parole agreement from the 2015 hit and run incident if a judge so declares it. Jones had just cleared up a January ticket of driving without proof of insurance or a license and was told to stay out of trouble for 90 days and the ticket would be cleared (since he produced evidence that he possessed the documentation, just not at the time of arrest). He’s been in jail since the 29th and will have a bond hearing on the 31st where he will have the opportunity to explain his side of the story. |
Steve TozinA connoisseur of global sports, entertainment, pro-wrestling and mixed martial arts. Archives
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