It should have been a great week for Jon Jones as he travelled to Las Vegas to accept his induction to the UFC’s Hall-Of-Fame for his classic first encounter with Alexander Gustafsson, while also telling reporters how well his training for an eventual move to heavyweight was going and targeted a return to the Octagon in Q2 of next year.
However, life seems to always be a rollercoaster ride for the 34-year-old Jones and so just hours after his induction the former light-heavyweight champion was in handcuffs after being arrested and charged with domestic violence, injuring and tampering with a vehicle.
That tells a completely different story to the one Jones was telling the media on the red carpet at the Hall Of Fame ceremony earlier that evening.
“Right now, for the first time in my whole career, I’m actually training consistently,” Jones had said. “… I feel in better shape now than I ever did before. I’m sleeping better, eating better, drinking less – alcohol – and I feel really good.”
However, reacting to the news of his arrest, Dana White almost saw the latest development as inevitable given Jones past run-ins with the law in Sin City.
“Obviously, we’ll see how this plays out legally for him and where this ends up going,” White told reporters. “It’s hard to bring this guy to Las Vegas for any reason. This city is not good for Jon Jones, and here we are again.
“It’s like… it’s not even shocking anymore. When we bring him here it’s almost expected. You can’t even get him in Las Vegas for less than 12 hours to induct him into the Hall of Fame. It’s a problem. This guy’s got a lot of demons, man. A lot of demons.
“Is it really shocking anymore? It’s really not. It’s become not shocking. It’s almost like, ‘Uh oh, this guy is in Vegas, what’s gonna happen today?’ You want to hope that the guy is better and that won’t be the case, but he proves that every time he comes to this town that he can’t handle this place.”
That being said, it should be noted that many of Jones prior troubles actually happened in New Mexico where he lives and trains, while he’s also had issues in New York in the past too, so his demons are by no means only unleashed in Las Vegas.
