ALBUQUERQUE, NM — UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones pleaded not guilty Wednesday to two misdemeanor charges stemming from a drug test at his New Mexico home in which he was accused of being hostile.
Jones appeared alongside his attorney as pleas were entered on his behalf during a virtual hearing. An Albuquerque judge granted the attorney’s request that Jones remain free pending trial on charges of assault and interference with communications in connection with the March testing session.
Jones has vowed to fight the charges. When the allegations first became public, he called them baseless and posted on social media that he was taken aback by what he called the unprofessional behavior of one of the testers. He admitted to swearing after becoming frustrated.
“However, I want to emphasize that at no time did I threaten anyone, get in anyone’s face, raise my voice or commit any form of assault,” Jones said in a social media post.
Jones is considered one of the best MMA fighters took 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 at heavyweight. He was already the top light heavyweight by winning a record 14 title fights.
Jones was suspended for a year in 2016 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 passed under 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 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.
A criminal complaint states that the woman initially described Jones as cooperative, but that he later became agitated.
Jones told police he thought he picked up his phone and apologized for swearing at the woman and her coworker at the end of the test. He posted a video from what appears to be a home camera system, which shows the woman giving him a high-five before walking away. He said neither of them seemed scared during the interaction.