The People vs. Jon Jones came to its anticlimactic but inevitable end this week, as the once and likely future UFC light heavyweight champion copped a plea.
Jones pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident in an Albuquerque courtroom Tuesday morning, thereby ending his five months in legal limbo. He’ll serve no jail time. Instead he’ll do up to 18 months of supervised probation and make 72 personal appearances as community service.
"I'm here to accept full responsibility for what happened and my actions," Jones told district court judge Charles Brown before his plea agreement was approved. "I hope you guys can give me the opportunity to redeem myself."
A few minutes later, Brown told him: "Mr. Jones, you got real lucky here."
Brown also told Jones he expects the fighter to speak at local public schools and martial arts academies to educate kids about the hard work it takes to make it to the top, and how easy it is to lose it all.
"I better work on my public speaking," Jones joked in response.
This was always the way it was going to go.
Albuquerque prosecutors were never going to let Jones skate completely and the fighter was never going to press his luck all the way to trial. From the moment on April 26 when the light at the intersection of Juan Tabo and Southern turned red and Jones' rented Buick SUV plowed through it anyway, this thing had plea bargain written all over it.
All that remains to be seen now is how quickly the UFC tries to get him back in the fold. This is an organization that likes to move fast and decisively. It has always been a sucker for the grand gesture.
That makes it a good gamble we won’t have to wait long to find out.
In a way, Jones’ plea appears serendipitously—or very strategically—planned. The 205-pound title he owned with such extreme prejudice from 2011-15 is on the line on Saturday at UFC 192, as new champion Daniel Cormier guns for a first successful title defense against Alexander Gustafsson.
Could Jones show up this weekend at the Toyota Center in Houston?
With his legal troubles out of the way, could he be next for the winner of Cormier vs. Gustafsson?
The answer depends on a litany of as-yet unanswerable questions. We have no idea what Jones’ mental state is at the moment. We were told he’d spend these months away from the cage getting his life in order, but we still don’t know exactly what that meant.
We know Brown approved Jones for travel relating to work, but as his lawyer Vincent Ward pointed out, there are "absolutely no assurances" about when or if the UFC will reinstate him.
In the minutes following the hearing the UFC released the following statement on Jones' professional standing:
The UFC organization is aware that Jon Jones reached a plea agreement with authorities in Albuquerque, New Mexico this morning stemming from charges associated with a motor vehicle accident earlier this year. As a result, UFC, through Las Vegas-based law firm Campbell & Williams, will thoroughly review the agreement before discussing Jones’ possible reinstatement to return to competition.
More information will be made available following completion of this review.
We can only guess about the current condition of Jones’ relationship with his fight company overlords. UFC President Dana White attended Jones' court appearance on Tuesday in support of the fighter, so maybe the two sides are back on the same page after a few years of running hot and cold.
The UFC stripped Jones of his title and handed him an indefinite suspension after he turned himself in on felony hit-and-run charges in April. Authorities said a pregnant woman was injured when Jones’ car struck two vehicles just before noon on that Sunday morning. Eyewitnesses alleged he ran from the crash, but briefly returned to grab a large handful of money before fleeing again.
The crash was one thing, but leaving the scene with a fistful of cash was the kill shot to Jones’ already beleaguered public image. It came just five months after he tested positive for cocaine while training to fight Cormier at UFC 182. Amid what appeared to be intensifying personal chaos, the UFC had no choice but to put him on timeout.
For the moment, White publicly appears to have Jones' back. The UFC boss told radio host Jim Rome in May that Jones just needed to “get his head straight” and when he did, he’d be granted the immediate opportunity to get his championship back (h/t MMAFighting.com's Shaun Al-Shatti).
"He comes right back and he fights for the title," White said. "If you look at the murderer's row of the 205-pound division that he went through, and he just went through it like a hot knife through butter, I mean, he's the man. So whenever he gets his stuff together, he'd come right back and fight for the title."
Yet the relationship between fighter and promoter hasn’t always been so caring.
White hasn’t always thought Jones was “the man.”
In fact, the UFC-Jones marriage has been a touch rocky ever since White ruthlessly (and unnecessarily) hung him out to dry for the company’s decision to cancel UFC 151 in 2012. During a bizarre and scathing media conference call, White called Jones' coach Greg Jackson a “sport killer” and said turning down Chael Sonnen as a late replacement opponent was "one of the most selfish, disgusting decisions" he’d ever seen.
"Jon Jones is a guy a lot of fans don't like, and I don't think this is going to make him any more popular,” White said at the time. "UFC 151 will be remembered as the event Jon Jones and Greg Jackson murdered."
Jones seemed legitimately—and understandably—hurt by the sudden turn against him. Ever since, his public comments about UFC ownership have appeared measured, careful. You didn’t get the impression there were Christmas cards going back and forth.
Until White showed up in that Albuquerque court room this week, we've had little reason to believe the relationship had gotten any better. Earlier this month, allegations emerged that the UFC let Vitor Belfort fight Jones at UFC 152 despite a troubling blood test showing Belfort was over the legal limit for testosterone just three weeks before the bout.
The report, by veteran MMA writer Josh Gross, said Jones didn’t know Belfort had essentially failed a UFC-sponsored drug screening. He beat Belfort by fourth-round submission, but not before the middleweight fighter injured his arm with an arm bar attempt.
Last week, in the immediate wake of Gross’ story, Jones agent Malki Kawa took to social media to say his client was less than pleased about the new revelations.
So, here we are.
On Tuesday, the court appeared to clear the way for Jones’ return to the Octagon. Despite a fairly stellar year on pay-per-view, his absence was notable from the bulk of the UFC’s 2015 lineup. Of course the fight company would jump at the chance to have him back in the mix, and would make him one of its highest-paid athletes the moment the two sides agreed to put pen to paper.
The multimillion-dollar question, as ever will be: What does Jones want to do?
The gala UFC 200 fight card is currently scheduled for July 2016 and the UFC moved Monday to force the hand of regulators in New York state—where MMA is currently illegal—by announcing an event at Madison Square Garden next April.
Jones would be right at home headlining either event, if he makes it back in time.
We’ll have to wait a little longer to confirm the light heavyweight GOAT’s next move. If he’s willing and able, however, you can bet the UFC will want to move quickly to get him back in an Octagon near you.
Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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