UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones has plead not guilty to two misdemeanor charges in relation to an alleged altercation with two agents from the Drug Free Sport agency that oversees the UFC’s drug-testing procedures earlier this year.
The alleged incident took place back on March 30th when the agents had showed up at his home to collect a drug-testing sample from him. One of the agents, Crystal Martinez alleges that Jones appeared “agitated”, left her fearing he was going to hit her, threatened to sue them and at one point is alleged to have taken Martinez phone from her and started recording.
As a result Jones was in court in New Mexico on Wednesday, where he pled not guilty to a petty misdemeanor for assault and a misdemeanor for interference with communications.
A bench trial will now be set for the case, and in the mean time Jones has been ordered not to possess any firearms or dangerous weapons, not to possess or consume any alcohol or illegal drugs and to avoid all contact with the alleged victims among a few other stipulations.
If found guilty Jones faces the possibility of spending less than a year behind bars in addition to paying a $1500 fine.
The 36-year-old had previously addressed the allegations against him and protested his innocence.
“I was recently visited by testers while I was celebrating a birthday and taking a nap,” Jones said back in April. “Upon waking up, I was caught off guard by the unprofessionalism and protocol by one of the testers, which caused frustration leading me to use some profanity I regret. However, I want to emphasize that at no point did I threaten, get in anyone’s face, raise my voice to anyone, or engage in any form of assault.
“It’s unfortunate that false news has been spread without proper fact-checking. I want to assure you that I will vigorously defend myself against these baseless accusations. The truth is, the incident simply did not occur.”
Jones had recently hinted that his long-awaited return from a torn pectoral muscle to defend his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic could take place in November of this year at Madison Square Garden in New York.
