New video shows former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones head-butting a police car and screaming obscenities at officers on the Las Vegas strip after being detained in the early hours of September 24, 2021.
Jones allegedly also directed racial slurs at the officers, according to a report from the Las Vegas Review Journal, which obtained the body-worn camera footage after the ex-UFC champion reached a plea deal with prosecutors; he initially was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery domestic violence and injuring or tampering with a vehicle.
Jones’ voice can be heard at several times in the video. A public records request for the unedited video is pending with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
The vehicle charge stemmed from “a medium size dent as well as chipping of some of the paint on the vehicle” that Jones head-butted after an emotional outburst, prompting several of the officers to intervene to calm the fighter. At least six officers could be seen in the video.
Jones erupted after being handcuffed against a police cruiser and grew more agitated as officers tried to question him. He claimed he was just returning from the UFC Hall of Fame Induction ceremony and that he accused officers of targeting his race.
“Humiliating me [on] my Hall of Fame night,” Jones is heard saying on the video. “You f*cking nerd. I hate you. I hate you! I hate you! You f*cking nerd. I hate you so much.
“Say you name publicly. … You turned me in my Hall of Fame night, just because I’m big and Black. What did you do? …. I came from my Hall of Fame ceremony, and I’m Black, and I did nothing to you.”
At one point, a distraught Jones tells an officer, “Bro, hang me. Hurt me and kill me. What did I do?” Then, he cries, “A Black man can’t drink? Getting elected into the Hall of Fame, and this is what I’ve got?”
Jones starts jumping and then is instructed to calm down before shouting, “I hate YOU!” and hitting the car with his head.
When Jones is taken to a cruiser police car, he starts to obey officers’ orders.
“Jon, you need to chill, you understand?” one officer said.
“Yes sir,” the ex-champion replies.
“You did it, sir, because you’re on video doing it,” the same officer yells. “Chill out!”
” That’s going to appear on YouTube tomorrow,” Jones later said, referring to someone who was filming the interaction. “Look at him.”
The arrest occurred shortly after officers were summoned to Caesar’s Palace for a disturbance. This was following Jones’ induction into UFC Hall of Fame. Jones had been fighting Alexander Gustafsson 2013. Hotel security observed Jones’ fiancee, Jesse Moses, bleeding from her nose and mouth. Later, she gave an account to police and said that Jones had gotten “a bit physical” with her before their children.
Jones was arrested and taken to jail after resisting arrest, according to a police report of the incident. After posting bail, he was released that night. The 34-year-old fighter later pleaded nolo contendere to a lesser misdemeanor charge of destroying property.
Jones was arrested the night after he stated to reporters that he would return to the octagon during the second quarter 2022 in order to make his debut at heavyweight. He has not fought in the UFC since a light heavyweight title defense in February 2020. After a dispute over a contract with UFC, he gave up the belt.
