Lewis-Parry: Jones is ‘not a good soul’ but I’ll help turn his life around

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Despite their previous rift, Chi Lewis-Parry is offering a helping hand to Jon Jones.

Glory Kickboxer turned MMA fighter Chi-Lewis Parry had his unpleasant run-ins with UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. The two had a heated confrontation in May 2019 at a fitness expo in England, an incident that was caught on video.

Jones being Jones had since gotten himself in a few brushes with the law, most recently involving a firearm and Jorge Masvidal’s Recuerdo Mezcal that resulted in a DWI charge. Because of these episodes, it has come to a point where people have lost faith in “Bones”, including Lewis-Parry.

“I just don’t think he’s the sort of person that could ever change,” he said recently on Andy Shepherd’s “People I Want to be With” podcast (transcript via MMA Junkie). “He is what he is, and that’s what makes him as good as he is. It makes him great. He’ll be a legend of the sport – no one’s doing what he’s doing.

“But he will never, ever be, ever, a good man. And I would much rather people to be a good man than be a remarkable Hall of Fame athlete, because that comes and goes, and then you’re forgotten about. You’re just a number up in the rafters. But you’ll always be a good man through your life – and he’s not.”

Lewis-Parry went on to delve deeper into Jones’ personality and moral compass.

“We’ve all got little things that we do or people we’ve upset, we haven’t said the right thing, or we’ve done the wrong thing. But are you good?” he said. “Are you a good person? Do you look at yourself and go, ‘I’m good, because you know what? I’ll do the right thing.’

“If I crashed into a woman, and she was pregnant – pregnant or not, if I crashed into a woman or a man – I’m not running away. Even if I didn’t have insurance or a valid license, or I was in somebody else’s car, I’m not running away, because that is the wrong thing to do. Especially if you know someone could be hurt.

“That’s not a good soul. A good soul would not do that,” he said of Jones. “He was more worried about himself and getting caught and ruining what he’s got going on than he was about the lives of two people in that car, and one that hasn’t even had the chance to experience life yet. The shock alone could have killed that baby. I couldn’t live with that.”

Nonetheless, Lewis-Parry says he is willing extend a helping hand if Jones humbly came to him.

“Oh, 100 percent. Because if you’re humble enough that you can approach me and say, ‘Do you know what? It was a bit effed-up what I did, what I said. I apologize,” he said. “But you don’t understand the life that I live. I’m constantly under scrutiny, under pressure. I’ve got this fame and this access to all of these vices.’ I can say, ‘You know what? I don’t understand that, because I don’t have that.

“But maybe manage the way you talk to people. And I would say ‘cool.’ Because, in the initial instance, I didn’t have a problem with the guy. I didn’t even know him. He brought me into this.

“So if the guy can hold his hands up and say, ‘I was wrong. Have you got any advice?’ Or ‘Can you recommend anything?’ Or ‘Do you know anybody that can help?’ No problem, mate,” Lewis-Parry continued. “Because I don’t hate anybody. I don’t hold on to hate. But you’re not going to mug me off. I’m not going to have that. It’s a respect thing.”

Jones did concede to his shortcomings and “unhealthy” relationship with alcohol, but he’s not letting them outweigh the “awesome things” about himself.