Jon Jones will not be serving time behind bars for the hit-and-run incident he was involved in earlier this year in Alburquerque, New Mexico.
At a court hearing today the former UFC light-heavyweight champion plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was handed 18 months probation in addition to 72hrs of community service where he will teach young children about making good decisions in life.
““I am here to accept full responsibility for what happened for my actions…I’m hoping that you give me an opportunity to redeem myself,” Jones stated to the court.
Jones crashed his rental SUV back in April after running a red light, smashing into the vehicle in front of him which turned out to be driven by a pregnant woman who broke her arm as a result of the collision.
To make matters worse, Jones then fled the scene, though not before briefly returning to grab a handful of cash. However, rental documents in the car revealed that the UFC star was the driver, while police also discovered a pipe with marijuana in the vehicle along with condoms and other possessions.
At the time it appeared as if Jones was set to do jail time for his actions which had lead to a felony charge, but his lawyers have since been able to arrange a plea deal which allowed him to walk free today.
Jones has been suspended from the UFC since news of the hit-and-run story first broke, but today’s ruling could pave the way for Jones to return to the Octagon, and indeed Dana White was in attendance in court today to watch Jones make his guilty plea.
Coincidentally, the man who went on to win the light-heavyweight belt after Jones was stripped off the title, Daniel Cormier, happens to be making his first defense this weekend at UFC 192 against Alexander Gustafsson, so it’ll be interesting to see whether ‘Bones’ will now be lined up to face the winner of that fight.
More importantly, the real question now is whether Jones has been given enough of a wake-up call by this whole saga to turn his life around and get back on the straight and narrow.
Let’s hope he can put this self-destructive behavior behind him as at the age of 28 there’s still more than enough time for Jones to get back on top and potentially go on to become the greatest MMA fighter of his generation, if not of all time.
