Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has largely been a social media hermit since his alleged hit-and-run incident in April. While he isn’t quite back to making (and quickly deleting) posts on Twitter, he did pop up on the Instagram account of his wrestling coach, Israel Martinez. You can check out the photo here.
Martinez is one of the top wrestling coaches in MMA today and is closer to Jones than almost anyone. He regularly appeared in Jones’ corner for most of his reign as champion, and while they briefly split in 2014, they reconciled ahead of Jones’ most recent fight opposite Daniel Cormier at UFC 182. Jones was a relatively common sight on Martinez’s social media channels, and the two could be seen palling around until shortly before Jones’ arrest.
Jones, obviously, appears to be in good condition and is still training in New Mexico. Martinez will be hosting a wrestling camp at Jackson’s MMA in Albuquerque on Wednesday, and Jones could be involved.
The troubled former champ has been a steady presence in the news in 2015. Following Jones’ UFC 182 bout with Cormier, news broke that a random pre-fight drug test had been flagged for cocaine metabolites. Jones would spend a day in rehab before returning home.
Months later, he would allegedly crash a rented SUV into a car that a pregnant woman was operating after running a red light. According to witnesses, he then fled the scene on foot and would turn himself in to police the next day. He would then make an ominous tweet before going silent on social media.
Got a lot of soul searching to do. Sorry to everyone I’ve let down.
— Jon Bones Jones (@JonnyBones) April 29, 2015
Needless to say, this doesn’t open the floodgates for a Jones return to the public eye or the cage. Still, it is good to see Jones alive, well and doing good in the world.
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