Anthony Smith wasn’t surprised by the recent arrest of his former Octagon dance partner, Jon Jones.
Since their light heavyweight title bout in 2019, the duo have famously taken turns slinging mud at one another. Last year, after Jones denigrated Smith’s attempt to resist a home invasion, “Lion Heart” labeled his former rival a “f**king douchebag.” A few months later, Jones would return the favor by mocking Smith’s championship mettle following his loss to Glover Teixeira.
And tensions flared once again earlier this year when Smith boldly alleged that Jones “failed every drug test” in the week of their 2019 fight, despite months prior praising the former light heavyweight champ for vacating his title.
Anthony Smith Reacts To Jones Arrest, Expresses Pity
Clearly, Smith and Jones have had a fraught relationship. But after Jon’s recent arrest for battery domestic violence and injuring/tampering with a vehicle, Smith has taken the high road.
In an interview with R.J Clifford on the MMA On SiriusXM radio show, Anthony expressed his thoughts on Jones’ latest in a long line of personal issues, noting his own brushes with the law early in his career.
“For the longest time I’ve tiptoed around Jon Jones’ issues because I haven’t been perfect,” Smith said (h/t Sportskeeda). “I can’t talk about Jon being a f**k up, having made a lot of mistakes myself in the past. But clearly, I’ve done the things to right that s**t I did a long time ago. I’ve got a DUI twice, been in car accidents and arrested. When I was a young kid, I was wild. The difference is that I’ve learned from my mistakes and turned it around. I think Dana (White) said it perfectly: ‘It wasn’t shocking.’ I wasn’t shocked when someone sent me a tweet. It’s sad at this point.”
"It's sad at this point … I think that book, the title's going to say something like 'How great could Jon Jones have been?'"
Anthony Smith (@lionheartasmith) tells @RJcliffordMMA his opinion on how Jon Jones will be remembered when all is said and done
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) September 30, 2021
Smith joins a chorus of other notable UFC personalities to weigh in on Jones’ recent controversy. UFC president Dana White flatly declared that Jones “has a lot of demons.” Former rival Daniel Cormier echoed Smith’s sentiment that “Jones obviously doesn’t learn from the mistakes.” While Chael Sonnen believes that Jon will only reform once he’s appropriately punished by having his UFC contract torn up.
Long-time agitator Israel Adesanya was predictably far less measured in his criticisms, boldly speculating that Jones’ recent instance of domestic violence wasn’t “the first time this has happened in his house.”
What do you think of Anthony Smith’s take on Jones’ recent arrest?
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