More trouble for ‘Bones’ but this one sounds thoroughly undeserved, if his story is to be believed.
The legal issues of Jon Jones are well known, to say the least.
It’s almost a year ago now since Jones was stripped of his light heavyweight belt after his involvement in a hit-and-run incident with a pregnant woman.
Then, after he seemed to be back on the straight and narrow, Jones was pulled over in January and cited for driving without a licence, registration or insurance.
And it emerged on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour that he has had yet another brush with the law, for drag racing of all things.
Jones felt the need to break the news before any media outlets got their hands on it and he revealed in full detail how he felt that he was harshly treated by the police officer while driving home from dinner with friends.
“I actually just came across some more tickets since this incident I had recently,” Jones told Ariel Helwani.
“I just got pulled over the other night for drag racing, supposedly. This is probably going to hit the media really soon so I guess I’ll talk about it right now before it comes out anywhere else. You can hear it from me so fans can get ready to see this whirlwind play out.”
Jones, who faces Daniel Cormier in the main event of UFC 197 next month, explained how the whole situation played out.
He said: “I ended up getting a deferred sentence for not having my proper paperwork and so I went to court and the judge told me ‘Jon, no citations for 90 days and this will go away, off your record.’
“And so, me knowing that, obviously I’m driving and following the laws and doing what I can to stay out of trouble.
“I’m driving up a street here in Albuquerque. I was coming back from dinner with a lot of my teammates.
“I pulled up to a red light and I had these fans that rolled down their window and were trying to get me to roll down my window. I guess I wasn’t really in the mood to talk so I revved my engine at them. And they started clapping and were smiling, they were so happy.
“The light turns green and I start driving away and I literally get pulled over 10 yards after driving. I get pulled over in a 35 m/ph zone and the officer pulls me over and tells me that I was drag racing. I was obviously very upset and I asked him how was it possible to be drag racing in a 35 m/ph zone.
“And he said ‘well I never said you were speeding but I’m going to ticket you for drag racing.’
“Knowing that I just got a deferred sentence, knowing that this was the last thing that I needed to be associated with was a drag race and knowing that I wasn’t drag racing; I freaked out. I totally freaked out.
“I freaked out pretty much and argued with this officer and it got pretty heated and this guy ended up giving me five tickets. It was bullshit, quite frankly.
“He gave me a ticket for exhibition driving. He said that me revving my engine was illegal. He gave me [a ticker for] drag racing which is impossible because I was in a 35 m/ph zone. He acknowledged that I wasn’t speeding but he wanted to give me a ticket for drag racing. I don’t understand how you can drag race for 10 yards under 35 m/ph and get ticketed for that. But I got a ticket for drag racing.
“He gave me a ticket for altering my exhaust which I didn’t [do]. It’s completely stock but he just wanted to throw that on there too.
“He gave me a ticket for swerving lanes. He told me I broke the dotted line three times which is also completely not true.
“And then he gave me another ticket because he said he couldn’t see the registration number at the bottom of my licence plate because it was covered up by that frame that goes around people’s licence plates that shows where you bought the car from.
“It was just excessive. The guy really just picked me. I think it was a DUI cop and he wanted to find a drunk driver. And once he realised I was sober, he needed something to justify pulling me over so he fabricated this whole thing that I was drag racing.
“I’m going to fight it but it’s definitely the last thing I need to be dealing with right before this fight. I’m going to fight it the best I can because I definitely wasn’t drag racing. I got really emotional and said a whole bunch of things I probably should never have said to a police officer. Just getting accused of something, it really pissed me off. I definitely regret some of the things I said to the guy but it will be coming out here shortly. I’m sure that somebody is going to pull the tape of it or something but whatever.”
