Jon Jones may seem invincible inside the cage, but outside, the 24-year-old UFC champion is proving to be very human.
On Saturday, TMZ reported that Jones was arrested after crashing his Bentley into a pole in New York State’s Broome County.
A statement was released immediately following the accident by Jones’ manager, Malki Kawa, who confirmed the champ had been arrested on suspicion of DUI.
Since the accident, there hasn’t been any word from Jones, who had kept his nose clean up until this incident.
In an exclusive interview with MMAWeekly Radio on Tuesday, Kawa gave personal insight on the accident and how Jones was coping with the situation:
“He’s okay. Obviously, I really can’t say much. I’m not going to comment too much on it. We hope that the fans and the media will give Jon a chance to gather his thoughts together, and get everything he needs to get together, and you guys will be hearing from Jon directly. He’s not hurt or anything like that, that’s a good thing about it, but it’s an unfortunate situation. We’ll get him through it.”
As is every other human being, Jones is far from perfect, but media and fans have already taken it upon themselves to attack the credibility of his good-guy persona.
It shouldn’t be hard for Jones to make the full transition to the villain role: People have vilified him since he defeated Mauricio “Shogun” Rua for the light heavyweight title.
With that said, greatness comes with hate. There are people out there who want to see Jones fail, and with incidents like the one on Saturday, he only validates their opinions.
Kawa continued:
“I would kind of like to let the fans know to give him a chance. Give yourself a chance to get all the facts in yourselves, wait until everything gets said and done and then at that point if you want to vilify him afterwards and you heard him speak and you heard him say his part and then vilify him, I can’t control what people are going to say.
But it is too soon, it is too quick in my opinion. He really is a decent guy, he’s a very, very good guy trying his hardest to be a good role model, a good example and he wants to be that. No one’s perfect and he’s never said he was and never said that he doesn’t make mistakes. It’s a fact he made a mistake, he messed up and I’m sure he’s going to come out and apologize and do what he’s got to do.”
Jones certainly isn’t the first pro athlete to make a mistake, especially considering his young age. Still, the world tends to place celebrities and athletes on higher pedestals than everyone else.
It comes with the territory.
Jones is already taking a lot of heat for the situation, and it’ll be interesting to see if what he has to say can fan some of the flames. With that said, the young champ hasn’t spoken a word yet.
He sits in silence as avalanches of criticism continue to roll his way, Kawa doing his talking:
“No one’s running from anything, at the end of the day he’s a man, he’s going to stand up like a man, but there’s obviously legal advisors involved, processes involved and he’s just going through it right now. I can promise you that he’s trying his hardest not to stay quiet and not address the concerns, he’d like to.”
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