UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones has been summoned to court following allegations he verbally threatened to kill a female anti-doping officer in Albuquerque.
The incident is alleged to have taken place at Jones’ home on 30 March and was reported to the police on Friday.
In a police department report seen by the BBC, the complainant said Jones was intoxicated, threatened to kill her and took her phone after he was asked to give a urine sample in the presence of two anti-doping officers.
In response, Jones posted a video on Instagram which he says shows both drugs test officers “leaving my home after the testing session, where we exchanged a high five and a hug”.
The athlete, who accused one of the testers of breaching standard protocols and health insurance laws, added: “Although I was frustrated with the unprofessionalism and used profanity out of frustration it ended friendly and amicably, nothing threatening at all.”
Jones, 36, has not fought since March 2023, when he beat France’s Ciryl Gane via submission.
Nicknamed Bones, he has won world titles in both the light-heavyweight and heavyweight divisions, and is regarded as one of the sport’s greatest fighters of all time.
He is unbeaten since his only loss against Matt Hamill in 2009.
In 2018, Jones was handed a 15-month backdated ban for violating the UFC’s anti-doping policy. The American was stripped of his light-heavyweight title, having tested positive for a banned substance before his bout at UFC 214 in 2017.
But the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) found Jones “was not intentionally cheating”.
In 2023, Jones said he felt he had been cleared of being a “steroid cheat” after changes to the threshold levels for certain prohibited drugs in 2019.