Jon “Bones” Jones Arrested for DUI

UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones was arrested for DUI after wrecking his Bentley in upstate New York early Saturday morning.

Jones was involved in an accident at 5:00 A.M. in Binghamton, NY. He crashed his car into a pole, totaling it, and was subsequently arrested for DUI. Jones was taken into custody by the Broome County Sheriff and was bailed out a few hours later by none-other than his own mom, reports TMZ.

Malki Kawa, Jones’s manager, released a statement following the arrest, saying, “I can confirm that Jon Jones was arrested early this morning on suspicion of DUI. While the facts of this situation are still being gathered and situated, First Round Management fully supports Jon, and we are asking for fans and media to respect the privacy of Jon and his family during this time.”

Though Jones isn’t the first fighter to be arrested for DUI, he might be the highest-profile, as the titleholder of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s 205-pound division, and one of the industry’s most closely watched, successful, and creative talents.

Of his wunderkind-like success, Jones told USA Today last month, “I’m very comfortable with the UFC putting me out there and trying to use me as one of the guys to promote the sport and bring it to a new level,” continuing, “I think if I was a knucklehead and I was a guy who you would have to worry about getting a DWI or going out and doing something really stupid, they simply wouldn’t promote me. I think they see the guy that I am and they trust that, even though I’m a 24-year-old, I’m a trustworthy 24-year-old.”

Oh, the irony.

Though UFC president Dana White reacted incredulously to the news of Jones’s DUI arrest, quipping, “Wow, I guess its not my week is it?”, White is known for helping his fighters out of scrapes with the law. He promised to help lightweight Ross Pearson survive similar charges back in April, saying, “I’m a realist. You can’t expect all these people to be perfect…. I understand they’re are role models and they’re all these other things, (but) they’re human beings, man. They’re all going to make mistakes.”

It seems likely that White would support Jones under the same conditions, given Jones’s success in the industry.

Jones faced and defeated Rashad Evans by unanimous decision on April 21st. His next fight is on September 1st, when he’ll face Dan Henderson in Las Vegas.