Bare-knuckle brawler Jamie Driver had an interesting interaction with Jon Jones.
Last month, the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion attended the closed-door debut of ‘Platinum’ Mike Perry’s Dirty Boxing Championship promotion in Miami. Initially, fans only got a glimpse at the evening’s action via a series of highlights posted on social media, but a select group of fighters scored an invite to the event, including Jones.
While there, Jones was approached by Driver, who described her interaction with ‘Bones’ during a recent interview with Dylan Bowker on his Bare Knuckle Bowker podcast.
“It’s Jon Jones, he’s the GOAT. I was going to make my way over there to at least say what’s up and get a picture. Of course, the first thing I rattle off is I’m a bare-knuckle fighter. You should come to my fight December 6th. I basically just told him about myself and he should come to my fight. A lot of people were kind of getting it confused in the video.
“Thinking he was flirting or whatever. All he said was, well they missed this part of the video because it wasn’t in there, but he was punching me in the stomach [laughs]. He said wow, you’re like a brick. You’re built like a brick and whatever, whatever, he wished me luck. That was really it but it was really, really cool to meet him” (h/t Sportskeeda).
Aside from taking a few shots from the champ, it sounds as though Driver has a positive experience during their brief interaction.
After a lackluster MMA career, Jamie driver finds new life in bare-knuckle
Driver won her bout at BYB 34: Brawl in the Pines IV, finishing Sonya Dreiling inside the distance to capture the BYB Police Gazette Diamond welterweight championship. It was her second career win over Dreiling after scoring a split decision in their inaugural meeting in October 2022.
Overall, ‘The Red Queen’ is 4-1 in bare-knuckle competition, all coming under the BYB banner.
Before turning to bare-knuckle, Driver competed as a mixed martial artist in CFFC and Valor Fighting Championship, among other regional organizations. She went 2-4 in MMA before making her bare-knuckle debut in May 2022.
