Jon Jones has issued a statement after charges against him regarding fleeing the scene of an accident in New Mexico earlier this year were dropped.

The alleged incident had taken place back in Jones hometown of Albuquerque back in February, with officers attending the scene of a car crash, where a half-naked woman in the vehicle claimed that the former UFC heavyweight champion had been driving, but had fled the scene.

Bodycam footage from that night showed the woman calling a man alleged to be Jones, who subsequently became verbally abusive to the officer.

However, it seems that Jones claims that he was never at the scene of the accident were backed up by an alibi, and after an investigation he’s no longer facing any charges.

“I want to begin by thanking the district attorney’s office for carefully reviewing the facts and ultimately vindicating me completely,” Jones wrote in his statement. “I have always believed in the importance of truth and fairness, and I am grateful that the evidence spoke for itself. The simple fact is this: I was never there. I never even left my house that night, and all the evidence proved that.

“In this case, there was a rush to judgment before any real evidence was gathered. I understand that, in the court of public opinion, the allegations may have seemed believable, especially given my past mistakes. But by the time these claims were made public, I had just retired from competition, and that moment was stolen from me by someone who made false accusations to avoid a DWI and any real accountability.

“I sincerely hope that this individual is held responsible by Albuquerque’s law enforcement. They not only disrupted my retirement but also made our police department appear negligent in the process. It is deeply troubling that, in today’s world, a single false accusation can take so much away from someone before any evidence is even considered.”

This was of course not the first time that Jones had been accused of being involved in a hit-and-run accident, as he pled guilty to doing so after another incident that injured a pregnant woman back in 2015, leading to a sentence of supervised probation.

Jones also has two DWI charges on his record from 2012 and 2020, and has had other run-ins with the law over the years too.

The 38-year-old Jones retired around the same time as his initial hit-and-run charges became public earlier in the year, but soon after reversed his decision after being inspired to return by Donald Trump’s announcement that there would be a UFC event at the White House next year.

However, Dana White has since poured cold water on Jones fighting at that high-profile event, stating that his odds of competing there were “a billion-to-one,” due to the fact that he no longer trusts the former two-division champion.