After his latest run-in with law enforcement, Jon Jones has now been kicked out of his long-time training camp, Jackson Wink MMA. The news surfaced on a recent episode of the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, when Mike Winkeljohn gave a short interview and explained that he had kicked Jones out of his gym on a temporary basis in order to encourage him to focus on fighting his demons:
“I just had a conversation with him. I said, ‘Jon, here’s the deal, man. You’re like my little brother. You have to stop drinking and fix these things for a certain period of time until you come back to the gym.’ So at the moment, he’s out of the gym. He’s not allowed to come in the gym. I feel I had to do that, because ignoring it and expecting different results, as they say, is insanity… In my heart, I hope he comes back, wins the heavyweight title, stops drinking, goes forward, and goes on to bigger things.”
Winklejohn continued, “I’m hoping after a certain period of time he wants to come back to the gym and does it. But even if he doesn’t come back to the gym, I’m okay with it. In my own heart, I know that he might go on to win the heavyweight title. I’ll take myself out of a little bit of money. Whatever. That’s just not where my values are at right now. I just want to set the precedent for the rest of my guys in the gym and for people as a whole. Look, I’m all about forgiveness, but let’s go forward. Let’s fix these things. I know he can. I’m optimistic he can do that.”
Shortly after the news of Jon Jones being kicked out of Jackson Wink MMA surfaced, Jones released his first official statement on it and seemed genuinely hurt by the outcome:
As it stands, this may be the best thing for him. Jon Jones has long been one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport and the only thing that’s ever held him back has been his own personal battles. In the octagon he has been virtually flawless since day 1 and has crushed every challenger he’s had to face, but outside of it he has frequently ended up on the losing side. Hopefully, with a little time away from the sport and the ability to focus entirely on himself, he may end up coming back to MMA better than ever before.
