Jon Jones: UFC champion charged with two offenses after incident with doping test agent

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UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones faces two misdemeanor charges stemming from a drug test conducted at his home after he was accused of being hostile.

A bail hearing is scheduled for Wednesday (July 17) in an Albuquerque court. The charges include assault and interference with communications.

Jones has denied the allegations, initially declaring on social media in April that they were unfounded. He said at the time that he was surprised by the unprofessionalism of one of the testers and swore after becoming frustrated.

“I want to stress, however, that at no time did I make threats, get in anyone’s face, raise my voice at anyone, or engage in any form of assault,” Jones said in his post about the alleged incident at his New Mexico home in March.

A woman who worked for Drug Free Sport International, which conducts tests for professional athletes, first filed a complaint with police in April, accusing Jones of threatening her, taking her phone and verbally abusing her while she and a colleague were at Jones’ home for a drug test.

According to court documents, the woman described Jones as initially cooperative but then becoming agitated. She accused him of taking her phone and recording her and her co-worker, telling her he would sue her, and later putting her phone in his pocket. The woman told police Jones was less than a foot away from her and she was scared.

Jones told police he put the phone back on the counter after realizing it wasn’t his, and he apologized for cursing at the woman and her co-worker at the end of the test. He posted video from some sort of home camera system showing the woman giving him a high five before walking away. He said neither man appeared afraid during the interaction.

The great light heavyweight Jones captured the UFC heavyweight title via a first-round submission of Ciryl Gane in March 2023. It was Jones’ first fight in three years and his first at heavyweight.

The American was banned for a year in 2016 for a failed doping test and his 2017 victory over Daniel Cormier was converted to a no contest after another doping test came back positive. Jones had argued that he would have passed under standards revised by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in 2019, which changed the criteria for a positive test.

Jones, 36, was scheduled to fight in November 2023 but suffered an injury. His planned fight against heavyweight icon Stipe Miocic has been postponed and no new date has been confirmed.