For most athletes a sizeable portion of their income comes from fan meet and greets.
One such event had the pleasure of hosting UFC GOAT and now Hall of famer – Jon Jones. One fan was so excited to meet his favorite athlete and passed out. Literally.
Back at the height of his career, former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones was loved by a huge fanbase. And when he visited Cologne, Germany, a young man at the meet and greet requested his idol choke him.
While that was one strange request to make, ‘Bones’ still duly obliged. Before getting into the choking position, he told him to keep his hands up so he’ll know whether the fan was still conscious or not.
He then slowly put in the squeeze for a couple of seconds before the young fan lost his consciousness and started twitching.
Jones–apparently already knew how to handle the situation–quickly rose the fan’s legs above his head to re-circulate the blood and that appeared to snap the fan out of his daze.
It didn’t take long for the fan to wake up and although he still looked dizzy, he was ecstatic by the rare interaction. He rose to his feet in no time and embraced the man that just potentially endangered his life a little while ago. While looking wholesome, this is still one of the strangest recorded fan interactions with an athlete.
Getting choked by Jones itself isn’t nice at all. Big-time UFC athletes like ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Lyoto Machida, and Ryan Bader were all victims of Jones’ chokes.
Jones vacated his light heavyweight belt not long after to prepare for his move up to heavyweight. After winning a razor-sharp decision against Dominick Reyes in early 2020, he set his sights on the heavyweight division.
In a recent social media posts, Jones can be seen with a lot of extra weight and weighing in at least 270 pounds. He is rumored to be facing former champion Stipe Miocic next, possibly for an interim title as the reigning champion Francis Ngannou is still recovering from his knee surgery.