UFC champ Jon Jones facing battery charge after alleged incident at strip club

UFC champ Jon Jones facing battery charge after alleged incident at strip club

  • By michael@cvcteam.com
  • |

Jon Jones is disputing a reported claim by a strip club cocktail waitress that he assaulted her in April. Her allegations have resulted in a battery charge for the UFC light heavyweight champion, according to multiple reports Monday.

The woman alleged, per an Albuquerque Police Department report via ESPN, that Jones smacked her in her genital area, pulled her down to his lap and kissed her neck while she was working. She also told police, per KRQE, that he put her in a chokehold and lifted her off the ground, and that he kept touching her despite her requests that he stop doing so.

Court records reportedly show that Jones failed to appear for a bond arraignment last month and that a bench warrant was issued for the battery charge. The warrant was lifted after Jones, an Albuquerque resident, appeared in court Sunday and paid a $300 cash bond.

“Today, the media told Mr. Jones about a false accusation launched against him and that paperwork had been sent to an incorrect address,” a spokesman for the 32-year-old fighter told KRQE. “However, after receiving the documents from the press, Mr. Jones immediately went to pay the small fee, and he, and multiple witnesses, stand ready to factually refute the malicious lies being told about him to the public.”

Jones said on Twitter Monday that he is “definitely not in any trouble,” and that people should not be “so quick to believe everything [they] read on the Internet.”

The woman reportedly said that she was serving Jones and an unidentified brother of his at the strip club, and that after he smacked her she told him he couldn’t do that unless he paid her $100. He has two brothers who have played pro football.

As part of a troubled history in the UFC, Jones has had run-ins with Albuquerque police in the past. He pleaded guilty in 2015 to a felony count of leaving the scene of an accident, after a hit-and-run incident that injured a pregnant woman.

Jones avoided jail time, but he was stripped of his light heavyweight title by the UFC for his role in the incident. He was arrested again in Albuquerque in 2016 on charges related to drag racing, and video showed him engaging in a contentious discussion with a police officer.

The UFC has twice taken away Jones’s belts, most recently in 2017 after he tested positive for an anabolic steroid after defeating Daniel Cormier at UFC 214. He had previously tested positive in 2015 for trace elements of cocaine and in 2016 for a pair of banned anti-estrogen agents, and he has served two lengthy suspensions.

The second ban ended in October 2018, and Jones got back his light heavyweight crown in December by defeating Alexander Gustaffson. He has since defended it twice, most recently with a split-decision win over Thiago Santos earlier this month at UFC 239.

Regarded by many as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the history of the UFC, if not in mixed martial arts altogether, Jones has never truly been defeated by any of his opponents. His one official loss, against 25 career wins, came in 2009 after a disqualification for illegal elbows, and he had the 2017 victory over Cormier changed to a no contest following the failed drug test.

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