The biggest news story this week in MMA has been the alleged incident on early Sunday morning involving now former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Jones was arrested earlier this week by the Albuquerque Police Department and is potentially facing a felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident involving death or personal injuries.
Over the past 48 hours, various people in the mixed martial arts community have expressed their feeling about the incident and the decision made by the UFC to strip Jones of the light heavyweight title.
During Wednesday night’s edition of UFC Tonight, former UFC middleweight Brian Stann was a guest on the show to discuss this situation. Stann is a commentator for Fox Sports and is also a former training partner at Jackson/Winkeljohn MMA in New Mexico. Stann was asked for an initial comment about what happened on Sunday and he stated that he was not shocked about the news.
“I’d love to say I was shocked, but I was not,” Stann said. “On a scale from one to 10, probably a four or a five. I was shocked at the details surrounding it and how it went down.”
Throughout the career of Jones, fans have expressed their perceptions of the light heavyweight out of New York. One of the terms that gets thrown around about the fighter is that he is “fake.” Perception may not always be reality and Stann gave his thoughts on his perception of Jones.
“I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t witness him act with kindness and caring and be a person with character,” he said. “In his loss to Matt Hamill, which was a simple rule break, he handled it with class and care. When he first came into that gym, people knew there was something unique about him. He had a lot more to lose than everyone around him, and the leaches came out who wanted to take something from him early on and he dealt with a lot of temptation. He’s very lucky. This is the second time he’s been in an automobile accident and somebody could have died. That’s an unfixable mistake.”
With Jones now being suspended and stripped of the UFC title, the obvious question is what does the future hold for him? For Stann, he wants to see Jones look at the consequences of his actions.
“I’d like to see him think more – to stop for a second and think about the consequences of his actions for himself, for his family and people around him. He has to start thinking about how he lives his life and how it affects other people. I think it hurt him hard. It hurt his wallet and his belt and it affected things he earned and cherishes. I think feels bad about what he’s done.”