Former MMA Star War Machine Apologizes to Ex-Girlfriend After Brutal Attack

Former MMA star War Machine apologized to his ex-girlfriend, Christy Mack, for brutally beating her in 2014 when he caught her with another man, in a new documentary trailer published by TMZ Sports.

Back in 2014, the UFC fighter, whose real name is Jon Koppenhaver, was arrested after assaulting Mack and Corey Thomas in Mack’s Las Vegas home. Mack suffered 18 broken bones and a ruptured liver, along with other injuries. Mack accused Koppenhaver of the attack and attempted rape. He was arrested a week after the attack.

In March 2017, he was convicted on 29 felony counts and sentenced to life in prison. He is not eligible for parole until he has served 36 years.

In a new documentary by Jon Bravo, Koppenhaver said he has since found God and apologized to Mack “from the bottom of my heart.”

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t regret that, and I hate it,” Koppenhaver said in a preview clip. Nobody hates me as much as I hate the man that I used to be.”

Koppenhaver said he no longer blames Mack for his behavior. Instead, he blames himself for cheating on and neglecting her.

“In the beginning, before I found God, I was just, ‘It was all her fault,’ you know. She had that guy in my bed. It was her fault, her fault, her fault and I was just blinded by it,” Koppenhaver told Bravo from his jail cell. “But once I found god, my eyes were open and I had to look at that night through the truth of Jesus’ eyes and he showed me that I put that man in my bed with my constant cheating, constant abuse, constant… just neglect. You know, I put that guy in my bed. I created that situation.”

In an interview with Inside Edition last year, Mack said their relationship would go from “very passionate” to “very tumultuous” and “very abusive.”

“This was a whole new level I had never experienced,” Mack said of the night Koppenhaver attacked her. “He punched my teeth out, he broke my nose, my complete eye socket was fractured. I could hear him going through the drawers downstairs and finding knives. I knew this was my chance, this was my only chance. If I do not leave now, I will die.”

Since Koppenhaver was sentenced to live in prison, Mack said she feels safer and that justice was served. She is now working to help other victims of domestic violence.

“I do feel quite a bit safer with him being away for that amount of time,” she told Inside Edition. “I do feel that justice has been served and I hope that so many more people can [also].”

Koppenhaver’s interview with Bravo will be available in full on Bravo’s YouTube page Wednesday.

Photo credit: Simi Valley Police Department via Getty Images