UFC fighters Jon Jones and Israel Adesanya participate in peaceful George Floyd protests
Since announcing that he is vacating his UFC light heavyweight title, Jon Jones has taken to the streets of his hometown Albuquerque, New Mexico, trying to make a positive change in his community amid the ongoing George Floyd protests.
Jones has been on the streets of Albuquerque throughout the day and night, with the aim of cleaning up the streets and ensuring that the protests are conducted in a peaceful manner. Jones shared a series stories on his Instagram page which began with him arriving with a crew of teammates from the Jackson Wink MMA academy to help fix up broken windows, then showed him clean up glass shards, and encouraging others to join hands and help clean up the city.
"Lots of work to do out in the streets today men. If you’re a real one, call your boys and get to work."
As Jones' efforts started getting noticed, several other volunteers joined the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC, with the goal of keeping the streets of Albuquerque safe, secure and peaceful during the protests. Jones then took to Instagram again to share a very important message. Jones urged people to refrain from vandalising property or using violence to make their voices heard. Instead, the champ asked people of his community to peacefully protest and make a difference. (h/t MMA Fighting)
“I called upon some of the men of Albuquerque, N.M. and quite a few showed up. We are fathers, we are brothers, we are business owners, we are members of this community, and we do not want to see you guys spray painting for no reason. We don’t want to see you guys throwing rocks through windows for no reason. We don’t want to see you breaking down hard-earned businesses for no reason. Tonight, we’re gonna try and stop as many of you guys as we can. We come in peace. We’re gonna use our voices, our numbers, and we’re gonna be the difference.”
Jones said that there was only one incident of vandalism downtown which was brought under control promptly by the Albuquerque Police Department. The fighter proceeded to thank his fellow community members and the police force for their efforts in cleaning up the city and termed the peaceful protests as "beautiful".
Not just Jon Jones, even UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya joined a group of approximately 4,000 people in his native New Zealand to protest the wrongful death of George Floyd.
Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who worked for the Minneapolis Police Department and was filmed kneeling on George Floyd's neck for eight minutes before he died has subsequently been fired from the department and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.