Chi Lewis-Parry Shares Insight Into Near Melee With Jon Jones
Chi Lewis-Parry has opened up on his beef with UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
There have been some issues between the two fighters. Most notably, Lewis-Parry confronted Jones at the Bodypower UK 2019 event while Jones was making an appearance. This led to Lewis-Parry firing off some insults at the UFC champion.
Jones made insults towards him as well in response. This eventually led to him offering the challenge to Jones to take part in a street fight. Lewis-Parry has given his side of the story while talking to The Body Lock’s John Kyon Ko:
“Alright, here’s the story. You’re getting an exclusive. We were at a press conference when DC was supposed to fight Jon the second time at the MGM? We were backstage. So prior to that, DC and Jon had done an interview. I had never met Jon, I had no reason to speak to him. I was part of DC’s team. I had no ill feeling towards him.
“I was just a training partner for DC. I had nothing to say. They finished the interview. I was like ‘do you know what? He seems like quite a decent guy.’ Until we got outside the building. Then he turned into this yapping guy that can’t get into the club. Talking all this shit to the security guard, that kind of guy, you know? And he’s attacking everybody. He’s picking everybody out.
“Rosendo was there, Bob Cook was there. He’s just talking, talking, talking. And DC and him are having a back-and-forth which is part of the fun, the entertainment. But that’s between them. I’m not going to start talking shit to a guy I don’t know. Then he turns to me and he starts talking shit about me.
“I was just like ‘why are you even talking to me? Why are we even having a conversation?’ And it got a little bit heated, security came.”
But it wasn’t over there. Jones later confronted Lewis-Parry backstage prior to a press conference, flanked by his two brothers – two elite level NFL starters:
“We went to the arena to do this press conference like an hour later. I was backstage and I bumped into Alistair Overeem who I’ve known for many years. Originally, I was with the group but DC and them lot went, carried on walking, they didn’t see me stop. So I’m talking with Alistair for like 10 minutes, catching up with him because I haven’t seen him for a while.
“When I turn to leave, here comes Jon and his brothers and like an entourage, it was like five or six people. And they tried to surround me like they were going to fucking jump me. I just squared up to Jon and was like ‘what are you gonna do?’ His brother started getting involved, jumping up and down like he was going to do something. He wasn’t on his own, but he had his manager with him at the first encounter.
“But the second time, he had his brothers, all of a sudden, he was a different guy. I’m not saying he was afraid the first time. But he was not as cocky the first time, he wasn’t as willing to step forward. But the second time, he had his brothers being all loud and noisy, that he’s kind of stepping to me. And I was like ‘oh, now you got your brothers.’ That was the meaning behind that ‘where are your brothers now?’ [comment].
“Because he was happy standing behind that table. But he comes over to say to the security guard ‘don’t hold him back’ but he’s still behind the security guard. See what I’m saying? So it’s all a facade. I’m sure he’d be happy to fight me but in the cage. He wasn’t happy to fight me in the street.”
Lewis-Parry helped prepare former UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier back in 2016 to fight Jones at the UFC 200 pay-per-view (PPV) event. The fight would later be scrapped and Cormier fought Anderson Silva instead.
Jones makes his next title defense as UFC light heavyweight champion against Thiago Santos in the main event of UFC 239.
