UFC champion Jon Jones agrees to anger management classes to resolve assault charges

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon ‘Bones’ Jones has agreed to attend four hours of anger management classes to resolve a pair of misdemeanor charges stemming from a drug test at his New Mexico home where he was accused of being hostile.

A trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday before a New Mexico judge, but a prosecutor and Jones’ attorney announced at the start of the virtual proceeding that an agreement had been reached.

The charges of assault, a minor misdemeanor, and interference with communications, a misdemeanor, will be dismissed once Jones completes anger management classes and follows all laws within the next 90 days.

Jones had pleaded not guilty in July, and when the allegations first became public earlier this year, he called them baseless. He posted on social media that he was caught off guard by what he called the unprofessionalism of one of the testers and acknowledged swearing after becoming frustrated.

Considered one of the best MMA fighters, Jones took the heavyweight title with a first-round submission against Ciryl Gane in March 2023. It was Jones’ first fight in three years and his first in the heavyweight division. He was already the best light heavyweight by winning a record 14 title fights.

Jones will face Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 on November 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York. He and Miocic were supposed to fight last year, but a chest injury forced Jones to postpone.

In 2016, Jones was suspended for a year for a failed drug test and his 2017 win over Daniel Cormier was overturned to a no-contest after another drug test came back positive. Jones later argued that he would have met standards revised in 2019 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which changed the criteria for what constituted a positive test.

A woman who worked for Drug Free Sport International, which conducts testing for professional athletes, initially filed a report with Albuquerque police in April. She accused Jones of threatening her while she and a co-worker were at Jones’ home for a drug test.

A criminal complaint said the woman initially described Jones as cooperative, but he became agitated.

Jones told police he apologized for swearing at the woman and her colleague at the end of the test. He provided video footage from what appeared to be a home camera system, which showed the woman giving him a high-five before he left. He said neither seemed afraid during the interaction.