UFC star Jon Jones has found himself on the wrong side of the law again after he was reportedly arrested in Las Vegas for ‘battery domestic violence’ just hours after he was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in a glitzy ceremony.
According to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi, former longtime UFC light heavyweight champion Jones is facing charges of battery domestic violence and injuring and tampering with a vehicle following an early Friday morning arrest in Las Vegas.
Jones’ bail is set at $8,000 and the star is reportedly scheduled to make a court appearance on Saturday morning.
According to US outlet TMZ, law enforcement received a call from Caesars Palace around 5:45am, where they then made contact with the UFC star.
There has been no official comment from Jones or the UFC as of yet.
Jon Jones was arrested early Friday morning by the Las Vegas Metro PD, a police spokesperson told ESPN. Jones is being charged with battery domestic violence and injuring and tampering with a vehicle. More info coming to @espn.
Jones, who has yet to taste (a non-DQ) defeat in his extensive run with the UFC, has faced several legal issues throughout his career after previously being arrested for hit and run (in an incident which left a pregnant woman with a broken arm) as well as drunk-driving and negligent use of a firearm, among others.
His hit-and-run arrest, which occurred in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2015, resulted in him being stripped of the UFC’s light heavyweight championship after he was adjudged by UFC officials of a breach of the organization’s Athlete Code of Conduct policy.
Jones’ most recent arrest came in March of last year when he was detained on numerous charges including aggravated driving while intoxicated (DWI), negligent use of a firearm, possession of an open container and driving with no proof of insurance.
He pleaded guilty to the DWI charges after agreeing a deal which saw the other charges dropped, and was sentenced to four days house arrest as well as a year of supervised probation, among other punishments.
Jones, 34, was in Las Vegas on Thursday alongside his family for his induction to the UFC Hall of Fame alongside Alexander Gustafsson for their classic UFC 165 title fight.
Jon Jones accepts his first UFC Hall of Fame induction.
He hasn’t competed in the UFC since February of last year and announced last summer that he was relinquishing his world title in advance of a move to the heavyweight division, which he told reporters on Thursday is expected to happen in the second quarter of 2022.
An ex-con Russian MMA brawler needed less than a round to knock out his English opponent on his bare knuckle boxing debut in Moscow.
Fearsome powerhouse Vyacheslav Datsik, who was once part of a banned nationalist party and has spent years in jail for a litany of offenses, appeared to face a tough test in the form of Randy Randayn, a confident challenger with a five-fight perfect record in the discipline.
Known as Kofi King, financial adviser Randayn, from the south-west town of Bournemouth in the UK, claimed he had knocked out the world pit-fighting champion on his way to a meeting with the man who spent five years in prison for shop robberies, serving his time alongside two neo-Nazis he reportedly boxed naked when he fled to Norway in search of asylum from Russia.
Despite clearly clutching his head in pain, Randayn bravely gathered himself after being smashed in the face several times with 90 seconds of the opening round remaining against free-hitting Datsik.
Leaning against the hay blocks making up the ring, Randayn carried on against a backdrop of a baying crowd, only to be swiftly hammered again by at least two huge shots.
The referee stepped in and Randayn appeared to sway around part of the ring before a towel – possibly thrown by his corner – was picked up by the official in the center of the circle.
Datsik was said to have been around 33lbs heavier than his outclassed rival, who is thought to have weighed more than 251lbs.
According to Ren TV, which televised the brutal bout as part of a Top Dog FC card, Datsik set a savage pace from the start and never relented.
Former cell escapee and self-declared ‘white warrior’ Datsik proved his prediction right that Randayn’s pre-fight plan would not work.
The visiting fighter had warned: “I’ve beaten everyone there is to beat in England. I can’t find anyone else who wants to take me on, so I’ve had to travel all the way to Russia.
“I was offered Datsik. I was told he was a man – I was told he was tough. When I got here, he was scared. He said, ‘Please, promoter: can we have some gloves?’
“I can box, I can chop, I can do anything. Datsik thinks that MMA gloves will save him, but no.
“I will knock him out; because of the gloves I will not worry about breaking my hands. There will be blood – I’ll just knock him out.”
Victorious Datsik was declared insane by a court and placed in a psychiatric hospital in St. Petersburg a decade ago and has since served time for attacking an underground brothel.
The 40-year-old’s latest fight took place in a space with a diameter of a maximum of six meters.
Datsik was backed by his devoted wife and representative, Viktoriia, who recently gave birth to his daughter.
Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton sent a mechanic flying backwards into the air after smashing into him with his car – then claimed that “we all make mistakes” after his Mercedes team reassured fans.
The unwitting team member suffered the unenviable agony of being thrown backwards into the air by the front of Hamilton’s car, shunting him up and back onto the ground as the Brit cruised in to the pit.
Bravely picking himself off the floor, the unnamed man signaled that he had not suffered significant injuries while Hamilton asked: “Man, magic – is he OK?”
A member of the team reported back: “Yeah, he’s alright. Been given a thumbs up.”
As footage of the scary incident inevitably spread on social media, the official account of Hamilton’s Mercedes team responded: “Bump. The good news is that he’s OK.”
Hamilton was backed by stars including tennis great Venus Williams as he reacted on his own platform.
“I believe this is the first time I’ve taken out a mechanic in 14 years,” the revered veteran told his fans.
Hamilton slightly overshoots his pit box and knocks over his front jack holder. Says “magic” (a brake bias setting) was still on. Mechanic is OK #F1#RussianGP
“My heart was in my mouth – I was so worried. Thankfully he was OK; pretty courageous to stand in front of the car like that.
“We all make mistakes, it’s part of the journey. But it’s how we come back from them that matters most.”
Other than fearing he had badly hurt a mechanic, the seven-time champion had a successful day in Sochi – not least because arch-rival Max Verstappen will start at the back of the grid on race day.
These quieter moments before the weekend kicks off and engines start — they never get old. Our work never stops and we’re as determined as ever. pic.twitter.com/AbcdkzxXIC
Verstappen was already facing a three-place grid penalty because of his crash with Hamilton in Monza last time out, and the Red Bull contender has been handed a further punishment after taking a new power unit before the Russian race.
The man who will start the Grand Prix five points behind Verstappen at the top of the standings went second-fastest overall during practice.
Mercedes have been utterly dominant in Sochi in recent years, and their formidable run looks set to continue after teammate Valtteri Bottas was the only driver to go faster than Hamilton.
A gang of thieves who allegedly stole a Russian Olympic champion’s medals in a calculated raid on her home have reportedly returned them less than two weeks later alongside an apology and a box of chocolates.
Burglars are said to have attacked tennis hero Elena Vesnina’s home last month, making off with her gold doubles medal from the Rio 2016 Games and the mixed doubles silver she won in Tokyo this summer among their haul.
The intruders allegedly scaled a fence in broad daylight and swiped the precious honors while the former world doubles number one and husband Pavel Tabunstov had gone out for dinner.
Now the heartbreaking incident appears to have had a happier ending. According to kp.ru, a police source has revealed that the medals have been returned to a checkpoint in the Moscow region where Vesnina lives.
Elena #Vesnina's medals, both gold and silver, were stolen from her house when she and her husband were out for dinner. She said she didn't put medals into a safe because she showed them to kids in a tennis club. But the safe was cracked and some jewelry were stolen as well. pic.twitter.com/bYBp84w6FX
“Together with the medals, they also left a box of chocolates,” the source is said to have added.
“They also put in a note of apology. But I did not see it – I cannot say what the content was.”
Vesnina responded: “I can’t confirm anything yet. Investigators are busy. I haven’t received anything yet.”
The 35-year-old, who took time out from tennis to give birth to a daughter in 2018, is said to have not kept the medals locked up because she had taken them out to show to children on a visit to a clinic.
“The robbers broke down the door, knocked down the security cameras, broke into the safe, stole jewelry and grabbed the bag with my medals,” she told the outlet at the time.
“Nobody was hurt. We were not at home. I wrote a statement for the police.”
Elena Vesnina with Ekaterina Makarova with their gold medals from the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio! pic.twitter.com/JuiqsYKMmZ
Vesnina made an impressive return to tennis this year after more than two years away from the professional sport, reaching the final of the French Open alongside fellow Russian star Aslan Karatsev.
Partnering Veronika Kudermetova, she had two match points to win the doubles title despite being in an unseeded pairing, ultimately suffering a narrow defeat to third seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens.
Kudermetova was her partner again at the Tokyo Olympics, where they lost in the semifinals to eventual gold medalists Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova on their way to finishing fourth.
Vesnina and Karatsev were then edged out in an epic all-Russian final in the mixed doubles, failing to convert a match point in a third set super-tie break against Andrey Rublev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Valentina Shevchenko has issued a stirring endorsement of Halle Berry’s MMA skills after starring alongside the Oscar-winning actor in the forthcoming Netflix movie ‘Bruised’.
Shevchenko, who also stars in the film set to be released on November 24, says that she was tasked with helping Berry, 55, prepare for fighting scenes in the mixed martial arts film – but quickly discovered that there was no quick fix to do so without undertaking what she said was essentially a full-scale MMA training camp.
The Kyrgyzstani-Peruvian said that she couldn’t have been more impressed by Berry’s commitment – not just to to the role, but also to her mixed martial arts training.
“If you are speaking about training, she went not only just a few months for this movie. She went through all of this training for a couple of years,” the UFC women’s flyweight champion explained to MMA Fighting.
Halle Berry congratulating her friend and training partner Valentina Shevchenko after her dominate #UFC247 title defense. pic.twitter.com/UzHMRppP2l
“She was training for three or four years. She was training Muay Thai. She was training jiu-jitsu. She did a lot of preparation before the movie started.
“That’s why about her toughness, I can say a lot. We were training leading into the [filming]. Filming days, we were training in New York for about two months and every single day we were working five hours straight, no rest.
“We were working different combinations, striking, punching, everything. She was doing this same every month. No resting, no saying anything, just doing it.“
Ahead of the movie’s release, Berry has spoken of the gruelling training regimen she undertook – but unlike most major stunts in Hollywood movies, the injuries Berry says she sustained were very real.
Berry, who won an Academy Award for her performance in 2002’s ‘Monster’s Ball’, has confirmed that she broke some ribs while filming scenes – and much like in an MMA training camp, the show had to go on.
That was something which impressed Shevchenko greatly.
“You have to make it not only look real, you have to actually do it real,” she said. “The tiny line between a real fight and a movie fight, you have to work with your partner to feel each other.
“You have to feel each other to make her confident that it looks like you are throwing with your whole power but you have to know that you’re never going to damage her.
“But definitely when it’s filming days, we were working for like 12 hours straight doing all the sequences and everyone was tired and, definitely, it was a lot of pressure. Physical pressure.
“When you are tired, this is when injuries happen because you are kind of defending the same way that you have to and it’s the same everywhere. When you’re tired – very tired – there are more chances you’re going to get injured.
“We did real sparring. We did real training for the fight scenes in the movie. It was an amazing experience working with her.”
While Shevchenko explained that the fight scenes were just that – scenes – she says that it is impossible to avoid a few punches slipping through, and she confirmed that Berry has legitimate power in her hands.
“I’m honest. She has a lot of power,” Shevchenko said about Berry. “She has a lot of flexibility. She catches techniques very quick, very fast. She has everything. She has everything for being a fighter.”
And after a career spent in the spotlight, Shevchenko also dismissed any questions of nerves ahead of the release of what is her feature film debut in less than two months’ time.
“Nervous? Definitely no,” the fighter known as ‘Bullet’ said. “I saw myself on screen how I look there – it’s kind of angry.
“A lot of fury in there. I’m very excited. I’m very excited to see the full movie.”
