Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This UFC Fighter is Now in Prison For Life - The Story of War Machine

Episode Date: July 26, 2025

Former MMA fighter Jonathan Paul “War Machine” Koppenhaver launched a violent home invasion in August 2014 at the Las Vegas residence of his ex-girlfriend, adult film star Christy Mack.

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and War Machine is around 25 years old when this story starts, and like I said, he's an MMA fighter. And one day in 2007, he gets his big break when he's cast on season 6 of The Ultimate Fighter, which is like a competition reality TV show for MMA fighters who are trying to fight in the UFC. And while he's on the show, I guess War Machine kind of gets a reputation for big,

being a little bit mentally unstable? And so anyway, eventually the season of the show ends and he gets a contract with the UFC. But unfortunately for him, his contract with the UFC is terminated after only one fight. And while War Machine isn't going to give up, unfortunately his reputation for being mentally unstable turns out to be true.

And as the years go by, his behavior gets worse and worse. Now, he starts taking steroids and taking stimulants and it's making him roid rage and act out, and he gets arrested for domestic violence, he gets arrested multiple times for bar fights. Here's one of his mug shots. And while he's in and out of jail,

he continues to have moderate success as an MMA fighter. His record is actually 14 wins and 5 losses, which, I mean, that's better than I could do. But this moderate success isn't quite enough. He's just not making enough money anymore, and he really needs to pay his bills. So in 2009, he's around 28,000, years old at this point, he starts making adult content. You know, like adult films. In fact, he makes

a lot of adult films. 23, to be exact, I counted. And so a few years later, in 2013, he starts dating fellow adult film star Christy Mack. Here's a picture of him and Christy together. And here's another one. Now, he seems to be making enough to pay his bills at this point, but his adult film career and his new relationship do nothing to chill him out. He still seems mentally unstable and he gets set off by the slightest thing. Plus, he's active on social media now. So he's like posting videos about altercations he gets into. Like here he's talking about how he got into it with a clerk at 7-11, something involving a slurpy. Oh shit, I'm gonna smash the fucking motherfuckers. So I would I, so I fucking, I dumped my fucking slurpy on the floor. So those fucking dumb motherfuckers could clean it up. Why can I just get a fucking,

who's slurpy? Why that motherfucker's got to harass me and tell me to take up my fucking hoodie? How is that even a fucking rule? How is that even illegal? Another time he got into it with a guy who works at the gym? And I just swear up with him. I said, motherfucker-o-ker. I said, get the fuck out of my face right now. I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck. Get the fuck at my face. I don't talk to me in your fucking life. I'm fissed. Yeah, bro is posting all kinds of crazy stuff on social media as he seems to be going more and more off the rails. Now, during this time, he's still dating Christi, the

adult film star, and one would think that he would be comfortable with her profession or at least accepting of it since they've been dating a while. But one day, suddenly, he's not. He gets mad that she's doing the job she does. You know, the job she was doing when they first met. The thing he was doing when they first met. And so War Machine, he starts getting violent with her, often. Like, he beats her up all the time and he'll like take her phone away to stop her from calling her mom. for help and this crazy relationship goes on for over a year until I guess they break up. But from what I can tell, it seems like they split up more than once. But anyway, they break up and War Machine finally moves out of her house in Las Vegas and he moves back to San Diego where he lived before. However,

even after moving out, he keeps the key to her house. I guess he still stays the night there sometimes. I don't know. This all seems very messy. But anyway, so Christy, starts moving on and she starts hanging out with this other guy. His name's Corey. And so now it finally seems like she and War Machine can be over for good. And War Machine, he can move on with his life and he can find someone else. Until. War Machine does not, in fact, move on. In fact, this whole situation gets much worse because one night he decides to surprise Christy by driving to her house in the middle of the night. And so he pulls up and he uses his key to get in. And he sneaks in quietly and he creeps into her bedroom. And suddenly boom, the dogs start barking when

they hear him enter the bedroom. And this wakes Christy up and Corey is there too. And at the same time War Machine turns on the light and he finds Christy in the bed with Corey. And he is pissed. And so bam, he jumps on Corey and pow, pow, he starts punching him. him in the face and Christie's screaming at him to stop and she grabs her phone and she calls 911 and then she hides the phone leaving the line open so that the 911 operator can hear what's going on. While War Machine, the trained M.M.A. fighter is beating up Corey, the guy who was just like asleep and so this beating is brutal. And he gets Corey in a chokehold and he nearly knocks him out and he just keeps on punching him. Ten minutes later, War Machine is finally done kicking his

ass and he tells him to get lost and if he tells anyone about this that he and his friends will come find him and they'll unalive him and so Corey leaves but now Christie's there alone with war machine and so boom he grabs her and he starts punching her and she's getting hit so hard that she's going in and out of consciousness and she ends up on the bathroom floor while war machine somehow he finds her phone and he starts going through her instagram and her twitter accounts and anytime he see something he doesn't like, pow, he hits her. Oh, but then it gets really bad because that is when he tries to essay her, but he can't because he can't perform. And so instead, he gets a dull kitchen knife and he stabs her. And he's also texting people from her phone and canceling all her

plans, canceling her plans from her calendar for the following days so that no one will worry about where she is. Oh, but he's still not done. Because then he's leaves Christy in the bedroom and he goes to the kitchen to get another even sharper knife to unalive her with. But him leaving the room gives her an opening and this is her only chance to escape. And so boom, she runs. And she runs out the back door and into the backyard and she jumps the fence and she starts banging on her neighbor's door. And people aren't hearing her knock so she runs from house to house knocking on doors until finally a neighbor answers. And ultimately Christy gets taken to the hospital. He had been beating her up for about two hours. And of course, War Machine knows he's

screwed. And so he goes on the run and he hides while police, they're looking for him. And while he's hiding out, he's like publicly tweeting at her. I love you and I hope you're okay. I came home early to surprise you and help you set up for your convention. I can't believe what I found. I can't believe what happened. All I wanted was to surprise you and help and do something nice. Now this? I'm so heartbroken in all ways. I will always love you. Anyway, it's because of those tweets, police are able to trace the IP location of his cell phone. And after about 10 days on the run, police finally find him at a hotel in Seamy Valley, California, where he was fighting with yet another woman. And so, bam, they arrest him.

Here's his mugshot. And he goes to trial, and he's found guilty, and he gets sentenced to life in my life. prison.