Strange Friends: Jon Jones Reveals Ronda Rousey Offered Refuge During Tough Times
As a game-changing phenom who once took mixed martial arts (MMA) to new levels, former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones knows a bit about what former women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is going through after her devastating KO loss to Holly holm in the main event of UFC 193 only two weeks ago.
Only it’s for completely different reasons, as Jones never lost his belt but was stripped when he was forced to turn himself in on felony hit-and-run charges after he allegedly hit a 25-year-old Albuquerque woman before fleeing his car only to return for his drugs and cash without checking on the pregnant victim.
Jones has since agreed to a plea deal that involves a deferred sentence and many charitable appearances, and he’s also been reinstated by the UFC. Set to tentatively face current 205-pound champ and archrival Daniel Cormier in the UFC’s planned event in New York on April 23, it seems as if he and Rousey’s roles are ironically reversed. But he won’t kick a girl while she’s down, even if the new champ is his longtime Jackson’s MMA teammate. No, during a recent tell-all interview with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, Jones stated that Rousey had been especially supportive of him during his dark times:
“Ronda has actually been very supportive of me,” Jones said. “She texted me quite a few times, man. She even invited me to come and stay at her beach house in California. ‘Jon, you’re going to come back from this. Anything I can do for you, you let me know. If you want to get away, I got a house here and not many people know where it’s at or whatever. It’s your house until you get right.'”
Jones was impressed that despite everything Rousey had going on — from title defenses to movies to commercials — she had time to reach out to him when he was in need.
“Stuff like that just shows you, man, this girl is on top of the world right now and she’s sitting here thinking about me at my darkest hour,” Jones said. “That’s something that I’ll never forget.”
Falling in line with the tone of the rest of the interview, it seems as if Jones displayed some genuine emption for what the former women’s champ offered him. It’s also a small glimpse into Rousey’s empathetic side, as many have jumped all over her since her loss by stating she got too cocky and received what was coming to her.
On a break to film a movie with superstar Mark Wahlberg, “Rowdy” will be absent from fighting for a while before presumably returning to rematch Holm, perhaps in the summer at FC 200 although nothing has been confirmed.
Filmed holding an airport pillow over her head when she arrived home in Los Angeles, Rousey is going to need a whole lot of the support that she offered to Jones if she’s ever going to regain the lofty throne she enjoyed for over two-and-a-half years. Will she be able to defeat the dangerous Holm following her break, or did she simply get exposed by a better fighter?
