Photo: The Canadian Press

ALBUQUERQUE, NM (AP) – UFC heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones agreed to attend four hours of anger management classes to resolve a pair of misdemeanor charges stemming from a drug test at his New Mexico home in which he was charged with hostility.

A bank trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday before a New Mexico judge, but a prosecutor and Jones’ attorney announced at the start of the virtual proceeding that a settlement had been reached.

Charges of assault, a misdemeanor, and interference with communication, a misdemeanor, will be dismissed as long as Jones completes anger management classes and abides by all laws for the next 90 days.

Jones had pleaded not guilty in July, and when the allegations first became public earlier this year, he called them baseless. He posted on social media that he was taken aback by what he called the unprofessionalism of one of the testers and admitted to swearing after getting frustrated.

Considered one of the best MMA fighters, Jones took the heavyweight title with a first-round submission to Cyril Gane in March 2023. It was Jones’ first fight in three years and his first in the heavyweight division. He was already the best lightweight, winning a record 14 title fights.

Jones will face Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 on November 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York. He and Miocic were scheduled to fight last year, but a pectoral injury forced Jones to postpone.

In 2016, Jones was suspended for a year for a failed drug test and his 2017 win over Daniel Cormier was changed to a no-contest after another drug test came back positive. Jones later claimed he would have promoted the standards that were revised in 2019 by the US Anti-Doping Agency, which changed the criteria for what constituted a positive test.

A woman who worked for Drug Free Sport International, which conducts testing for professional athletes, initially filed a report with Albuquerque police in April. She accused Jones of threatening her while she and a colleague were at Jones’ home for a drug test.

A criminal complaint said the woman described Jones as cooperative at first, but that he became agitated.

Jones told police he apologized for swearing at the woman and her colleague at the end of the test. He provided video from what appeared to be a home camera system of the woman giving him a high-five before leaving. He said neither appeared scared during the interaction.