Jon Jones to face court over alleged hostile acts during drug test

UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones is due to appear in court to answer two charges stemming from a drug test conducted at his New Mexico home in March that accused him of being hostile.

The charges include assault and disrupting communications.

Jones denies the allegations and said on social media in April that they were unfounded.

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He said at the time that he was surprised by what he called the unprofessional behavior of one of the testers and that he began swearing when he became frustrated.

“However, I want to emphasize that at no time did I threaten anyone, get in anyone’s face, raise my voice at anyone, or commit any form of assault,” Jones said in his post.

A woman who worked for Drug Free Sport International, which tests professional athletes, initially filed a police report in April, accusing Jones of threatening her, taking her phone and verbally abusing her when she and a coworker went to Jones’s home for a drug test.

“You know what happens to people who come to my house?” Jones is reported to have said. “They die.”

According to court documents, the woman initially described Jones as cooperative, but that he became agitated. She accused him of picking up her phone and recording her and her coworker, saying he was going to sue them, and later putting her phone in his pocket.

The woman told police that Jones was less than a foot away from her and that she was afraid.

Jones told police he put the phone back on the counter when he realized it wasn’t his, and apologized for cursing at the woman and her coworker at the end of the test.

He posted video from what appears to be a home camera system showing the woman giving him a high five before walking away. He said neither of them seemed scared during the interaction.

On the shortlist of best MMA fighters, Jones won the heavyweight title more than a year ago with a first-round submission over Ciryl Gane. It was Jones’ first fight in three years and his first in the heavyweight division.

Jones was suspended for a year in 2016 for a positive drug test, and his 2017 win over Daniel Cormier was overturned to a no-contest after another drug test came back positive.

Jones had argued that he would have passed if the standards had been revised by the US Anti-Doping Agency in 2019, which changed the criteria for a positive test.