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MMA Fighter War Machine Faces Between 7 and 32 Years in Prison for Christy Mack Attack

He already has a history of violence and assault arrests, might not get another break

Aug 20, 2014 15:53 GMT  ·  By
MMA fighter War Machine will be going away for a very long time if found guilty in Christy Mack attack
   MMA fighter War Machine will be going away for a very long time if found guilty in Christy Mack attack

There was a very good reason to MMA fighter War Machine’s decision to try and flee from the police after he beat his girlfriend Christy Mack so badly that she is still in hospital: he knew that he would not get another break, not after he’d been charged with assault again, given his track record.

On August 8, Jon Koppenhaver, the name the fighter used before he legally changed it to War Machine, went to Mack’s house in Las Vegas and, upon finding her with another man, proceeded to beating her violently. She escaped when he went in the kitchen to look for a knife and ran to a neighbor for help.

Mack is still in the hospital, where she’s recovering from serious but not life-threatening injuries that include a broken rib and ruptured liver, 18 bones broken in her face and a broken nose in 2 places, and considerable swelling on one leg from where he kicked her repeatedly.

The police report released today describes a gruesome scene, so she wasn’t exaggerating when she said on Twitter that she had feared he would kill her.

War Machine hid from the police for a little over a week and was captured at a hotel in Simi Valley last weekend, when another person staying there saw him trying to rough up a woman who had been staying with him all along.

This isn’t the first time he’s accused of brutally assaulting someone: in fact, he even did 2 years behind bars on this charge, with the victim, a male bouncer, describing him as “crazed” with rage during the attack. War Machine must have known that he would be locked up and have the key thrown away if he had another strike.

And this is what will probably happen. He is now in custody, but prosecutors have asked that he be sent back to Las Vegas for the trial, since this is where the assault took place. BJ Penn reports that he told the court on his first hearing that he won’t contest this request, which means that he’s going back to Vegas for the trial.

He’s looking at a sentence between 7 and 32 years for what he did, so he’s going away for a very long time, if he’s found guilty.

No less than 7 arrest warrants were issued in his name after the attack, charging him with assault with a deadly weapon, domestic violence with great bodily harm, battery, strangulation, and coercion with the threat of force. The date of his first trial hearing is yet to be announced.