Speculation has surrounded Jon Jones since he was involved in a hit-and-run accident with a pregnant woman and stripped of his title in April, and the former light heavyweight champion has finally decided to tell his side of the story after being reinstated by the UFC in October.

In an hour-long interview with MMAFighting.com, Jones said that the night prior to the April 25 incident, Jones slept over at a house where he had gone to a party, believing he was too drunk to drive home. The next morning, the accident occurred.

“So, I get in my car and was definitely still really tired,” said Jones, who plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident.

“Get in my car and I remember being at a red light and I had my music going. Texting on my cellphone. And I see the light turn green, and I assumed it was my green light, but really, it was a green light for people that were going straight in traffic, and I was actually turning. So, I just stepped on the gas when I saw the green light and I found myself driving right into oncoming traffic.”

Jones said that he hit one car, which then collided with another car, resulting in a pregnant woman breaking her arm, but he claimed that he assumed no one was injured since he wasn’t hurt. Jones said he “freaked out” and fled the scene because he assumed the police would think he was driving under the influence of alcohol.

“I just felt to myself, man, I went out last night, I haven’t been home yet, I probably still smell like the night before. I need to get myself out of here,” Jones said. “This is gonna be terrible, this is gonna be messy. I gotta go. I was afraid, man. I freaked out. I was afraid to talk to the police at the time. So, I just thought I had to get away from this.”

Jones left the vehicle, but then came back, looking to retrieve drug paraphernalia from his car, which the police later found.

“I got like five yards away from the car and I remember that I had a bowl, a marijuana bowl in my cup holder,” Jones said. “And so I knew that if the police found that bowl in my car, then everything was going to be so much worse than I thought it should be. And so I ran back, glanced at the cup holder, and the bowl had flown somewhere in the car and I just took off running again.”

Jones, who has previously tested positive for cocaine, was then stripped of the title, which he said was not because of the accident, but because he wasn’t yet ready to step back in the ring.

After pleading guilty to a felony of leaving the scene of an accident and being given 18 months of probation, Jones is now ready to return.