Jon Jones hasn’t had his troubles to seek over the past few years, but there’s one thing in particular that has happened that he admits stands out above all else as his biggest regret.
“My biggest regret out of everything, if we’re going to talk about public things, that the general public would know about, it was hitting the pregnant woman in that hit and run car accident four years ago,” Jones told Ariel Helwani on ESPN. “Even though it was four years ago, it is something — everyone has a mother, everyone has a wife or sister — and that was one of the worst situations I’ve ever been a part of. Had no clue it was a pregnant woman. I had no clue it was a woman. I just knew that I felt like it was a fender bender type of thing. Obviously, it wasn’t a fender bender, but I wasn’t hurt, I felt fine, and I assumed the person I hit was fine as well. Hairline fracture in the woman’s arm and she was a pregnant woman.
“Just a terrible, terrible situation. Being a father of daughters, being a fiancé, and being a person who loves his mother dearly, hurting a woman is terrible. That’s probably one of the few things that I would totally take back if I could.”
Jones escaped a jail sentence for that hit-and-run incident, but though he clearly feels guilt over the situation he takes some comfort from the fact that the woman involved was financially well compensated for the trauma she went through that day.
“I don’t think about (the hit and run accident) at all, not these days. It was like four years ago, hairline fracture four years ago. Girl made almost a million dollars off the situation.
“I’m sure her life’s been changed forever and I’m not making it okay, but to be real, life goes on. The girl’s life goes on, the baby’s healthy, and it happened.”