Jon Jones is busy gearing up for his comeback fight against Daniel Cormier at UFC 197. Jones hasn't fought since January of 2015 because of a suspension imposed by the UFC, which was centered on legal issues. Overall, the 28-year-old former light heavyweight champion has won his last 12 fights, but he had his belt stripped from him during that suspension, so he has to earn it back.
The only thing that has prevented Jones from retaining that championship has been legal issues, and he has them again less than a month before he gets the opportunity to get his belt back. Jones was pulled over by police in Albuquerque last week and was given five citations, including one for drag racing.
Jones is currently on probation from his felony hit-and-run incident last year. Part of that probation was that he had to stay out of trouble with the law. The judge saw the drag racing citation as a violation of Jones' probation, and because of that, he was booked in a New Mexico jail.
Drag racing wasn't the only thing that Jones was cited for when he was pulled over, but he insists that he was not drag racing when the officer pulled him over. A video shows Jones berating the officer that pulled him over, which he apologized for as he said it was excessive and out of frustration. Jones added, though, that he was going the speed limit and that the cop pulled him over for "revving my engine and acknowledging some of my local fans."
Jones' management team is taking this matter very seriously, but they want to let the legal process play out. Jones and his camp are confident that once he is able to explain the facts to a judge, he will be released and able to get back to training for the fight.
As for how this situation might affect the main event at UFC 197, the promotion says that they are still gathering information on the incident, but the plan remains to have the fight go forward as planned. "Bones" plans to jump right back into training for the fight when he gets out of jail and says that he has "trained too hard and come too far" to let anything stop him now.
Jones defeated Cormier when they first met at UFC 182 last January via unanimous decision. Cormier now has the belt, though, and will look to retain it on April 23 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
