UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who’s expressed outrage over the police killing of George Floyd, didn’t plan on intervening during protests in his home city of Albuquerque, N.M.
But he couldn’t help himself.
On Sunday night, Jones was seen on video doing his part to prevent more damage as things got out of hand in downtown Albuquerque – just as it has in cities across the U.S. In the video, Jones demands spray paint canisters from would-be vandals; both men complied with Jones’ order.
On Monday, as Jones and a crew of teammates from Jackson Wink MMA helped restore damaged businesses in the area, he described what the experience was like.
“When I got out there, it was people with rocks and people with sticks beating up on buildings, spray painting buildings,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, it was hard to watch, and I wanted to do something about it.”
Albuquerque experienced its second consecutive night of protest Monday, with local news station KRQE reporting “it was mostly a peaceful night.” That was a sentiment Jones echoed in a Tweet early Tuesday morning.
So proud of the city of Albuquerque tonight, the night is still young but as of now the looting is almost nonexistent. The peaceful protest was beautiful
The civil unrest throughout the country has been in response to a white Minneapolis police officer pinning down Floyd, whose African-American, with a knee to his neck for nearly nine minutes, leading to Floyd’s death last week. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was fired and eventually charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Three other officers involved also were fired, though none of have been charged as of Tuesday afternoon.
Jones was among the first prominent professional athletes to express outrage over Floyd’s killing, which was captured on video and went viral on social media.
