Yes, really.
Jon Jones recently caught a break after he received a 90-day deferred sentence for not having his registration and insurance with him following a traffic stop on Jan. 31, 2016 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
That’s because when he appeared in court on March 23, “Bones” had all of the paperwork proving that he was indeed covered and registered. As a part of the deferred sentence, all citations would be voided and erased form his permanent record — as long as he didn’t receive further citations within that time period.
Objection failed.
During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Jones revealed that he was recently pulled over in “The Duke City,” once again, and was issued five citations after the police officer accused him of drag racing; which eventually led to a heated confrontation between Jones and the officer.
He breaks it down:
“About three or four days go. This is crazy. So, I ended up getting a deferred sentence for not having my proper paperwork. I went to court and judge told me no citations for me knowing that 90 days and this will go off your record. So, me knowing that, obviously, I am driving and following the law doing what I can to stay out of trouble. I’m driving up the street, coming back from dinner. I pull up to the red light and there are these fans that are rolling down their window and trying to get me to roll down my window. I wasn’t really in the mood to talk, so I rev up my engine at them and they start clapping and smiling and they are happy. The light turns green and I start driving away. I literally get pulled over, like I don’t know, 10 yards after driving. I get pulled over in a 35 mile per hour zone and the officer tells me I was drag racing. I was obviously really upset and I asked him how is it possible to be drag racing in a 35 mile per hour zone. And he says, ‘Well, I didn’t say you were speeding, but I am going to ticket you for drag racing. Knowing that I just got a deferred sentence and knowing this is the last thing I need to be associated with a drag race, knowing that I wasn’t. So I freak out. This guy ended up giving me five citations. So I ended up arguing with this officer and it got pretty heated and he ended up giving me five tickets. Yeah, five tickets. It’s bullshit quite frankly. He gave me a ticket for exhibitionist driving. He said that revving my engine was illegal and he gave me drag racing, which is impossible because I was in a 35 zone. He acknowledged I wasn’t speeding but he gave me a ticket for drag racing, which I don’t understand how you can drag race for 10 yards under 30 miles per hour. He gave me a ticket for altering my exhaust, which I didn’t, he wanted to throw that in there, too. He gave me a ticket for swerving lanes, he said I drove through the dotted lines three times, which is also not true. And then he gave me a ticket because he said he couldn’t see the registration number at the bottom of my license plate because it was covered up by the frame of the license plate. It was just excessive, the guy just picked me. I think he was a DWI cop, he wanted to find a drunk driver. And once he saw that I was sober, he wanted to find something to justify pulling me over. He kind of fabricated this whole thing that I was drag racing. I am going to fight it, it’s the last thing I need to be going through before this fight. I am going to fight it the best I can. I simply wasn’t drag racing and I really got emotional and said a lot of things I shouldn’t have said to a police officer. But, getting accused of something I didn’t do kind of really pissed me off. I regret some things I said to the guy, but it will be coming out shortly. I’m sure someone will be pulling the tape of it or something. Whatever.”
Jones says he doesn’t feel the Albuquerque Police Department is picking on him at this point, but says the individual police officer was seemingly just in a bad mood and wanted to be very confrontational.
“Bones” says he will let his lawyers handle it moving forward and is adamant that he has never in his life participated in a drag race. Plus, he is confident this latest legal hiccup won’t interfere with his upcoming fight against Daniel Cormier, which is set to headline UFC 197 on April 23, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Keep it tuned to MMAmania.com for more on this developing story.