LGBTQ advocate Mariano Jones has announced his retirement from MMA. The Costa Rican says he received death threats after announcing that he had been in relationships with transexuals and identified as bisexual.
Jones has fought twice in the Philippines since famously declaring at a pre fight press conference,
I f**k hot trans. So what?
It appears his outspoken support for the LGBTQ community has made him a few enemies and among the reasons for his retirement the 27 year old states that,
Sadly, my experiences within the sport have not been free of danger. I have received multiple death threats during 2 of my 5 pro fights.
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Bitter dispute
The death threats don’t seem to be the biggest factor behind Jones’ decision to retire from the sport at such an early age. He is involved in a bitter dispute with Angel’s Fighting Championship in Korea.
Jones was under the impression that his fight with Kyu Hyung Kim at AFC 26 would be a three rounder. But the contest was halted after two rounds with the Korean awarded a majority decision victory.
Jones wanted the result to be removed from his record but was unsuccessful and sounds extremely unhappy about it,
The lack of proper regulation and disregard for actual MMA rules by the main databases of the sport, such as Tapology and Sherdog, has turned our beloved sport into a circus, undermining the hard work and professionalism of dedicated fighters like myself.
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Busy schedule
Jones had only fought twice before 2023, with one amateur loss and one professional win on his record. But this year he has stepped inside the cage three times, taking two of those bouts in the space of a single week.
It was ahead of URCC 84 that he made the headline grabbing comments about identifying as bisexual and Jones beat Arvin Chan at that event. He went on to defeat Caloy Baduria at URCC 86 just days before the contentious bout in Korea.
There aren’t many fighters who would compete twice in a week. But even with such a busy competitive schedule Jones has still struggled to make ends meet,
The lack of sponsors in the sport has hindered my ability to train full-time since I also need to work full-time to make ends meet.
There aren’t too many LGBTQ advocates in the sport of MMA. It would be a shame if one of them was to walk away from the sport forever but at the age of 27 the Costa Rican still has plenty of time to change his mind.
