Anthony Smith and Jon Jones may have history, but Smith still sympathizes with what his past opponent is going through.
MMA Fighting confirmed earlier this week that Jones has been charged with two misdemeanors from an alleged incident with a drug-testing agent in March. The current heavyweight champion is charged with assault, a petty misdemeanor, and interference with communications.
Jones appeared in a virtual hearing on Wednesday and plead not guilty to the charges.
On his podcast Believe You Me with Michael Bisping, Smith gave his thoughts on the situation, and the potential of a settlement out of court.
“I don’t know, maybe they’ll have him write a couple of checks to those two testers and let him go on about his business,” Smith said.
If convicted of both charges, Jones could face a total of less than a year of jail time, and up to $1,500 in fines.
Smith challenged Jones for the light heavyweight title in March 2019 at UFC 235, losing a unanimous decision.
Being a UFC competitor for 23 fights, Smith understands how the drug-testing policy works, especially with UFC’s past partnership with USADA. Smith feels he’s been fortunate, for the most part, when it comes to the agents he’s dealt with, but he has experienced ones that have not carried themselves with the upmost professionalism.
“I kind of stuck up for him at the beginning of it because it is a pain in the ass to do the whole drug-testing thing,” Smith said. “I’ve always been lucky that my drug testers have always been pretty cool. They’re fairly respectful of your time, they’re fairly respectful of the inconvenience that they’re creating for you. So they always show up like, ‘Hey, I know it’s not the best time, sorry, let me get this sample and we’ll get out of here.’
“But I have had one, I’ve had them before — not here at home or in Denver, but just been out somewhere and they find this random person, somebody you’ve never had before, and sometimes they can be assholes. They have this power trip, or some sort of power over you, like they want to boss you around or point the finger at you.
“If he got one of those bad ones, I understood him — because he’s a little bit hot-headed at times — I can understand him kind of flipping out and going off. And apparently he was having a party, so I think he was drinking and had some friends over. They show up, started to be assholes, kind of being disrespectful at times — I could see him kind of going off. But once you start touching people and taking their phones and stuff, that’s a problem. But if [they’re] being an asshole to him, then it’s kind of in his right. That’s not illegal.”
