It looks like more jail time for War Machine. The former Ultimate Fighter contestant and UFC fighter (at the time going by his birth name of Jon Koppenhaver) tweeted last night that he was sentenced to another round of jail time after serving a stint previously for a felony assault conviction.
From War Machine's twitter (with some censorship on our part):
@WarMachine170
War Machine Seems my year in jail wasnt enough. Just got sentenced to another year in Vegas for some old bulls**t. Nevermind Im rehabilitated. Nevermind
Favorite Retweet
@WarMachine170
War Machine Ive been out for over 6 months now and doing great and am finally back on my feet. Nevermind all my students that will miss me. Do another
Favorite Retweet
@WarMachine170
War Machine year and rot n waste time. Make no money, pay no taxes. Whatever, I just hope my boy @bensaundersMMA wins @BellatorMMA tournament.
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War Machine and Junie Browning are the two most prominent examples of former UFC fighters (in the "modern era") who have been unable to keep their names out of the papers for very negative situations.
There's quite a bit more at War Machine's Twitter if you want to check it out. But then again, isn't there always quite a bit more at War Machine's Twitter?
0 recs | 98 comments
Dear KillaB
Please cut all ties you may have with this guy, for your own good.
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
This
Seriously. Maybe its a bit judgmental, but this guy just screams “unnecessary trouble”
warren305 - February 3, 2012
i dunno
it seemed like Koppenhaver actually did mature and mellow a lot during his first stint in jail. Not sure what purpose locking him up on an old offense serves.
Nate Wilcox - February 3, 2012
Because our country loves holding shit over people's heads.
It seems like a pretty low move by the state. More probation would’ve been much better.
Jonathan. - February 3, 2012
The current sentence is in regards to Vegas
The stint he just did was for something in LA, right?
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
Doesn't change my opinion at all.
Jonathan. - February 3, 2012
So if I assaulted someone in Vegas, then flew to LA and assaulted someone in LA and got arrested/tried/sentenced in LA first
I should just tell Vegas tough titty?
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
Seriously, he's not the victim here
He’s a pro fighter. A simple assault from Joe Smoe, is aggravated or assault with a deadly weapon for a professional fighter, depending on the state. He shouldn’t assault groups of people and then run from the police.
Just because you mature doesn’t mean you should escape punishment for what you did. Just because you serve time for one crime, doesn’t mean you should be given a pass for another. These are two separate incidents, right?
warren305 - February 3, 2012
Rehabilitation vs. Punishment
It really comes down to: is rehabilitation the purpose of incarceration, or is punishment the purpose.
If the former is the case, then you can make a strong argument that he shouldn’t have to immediately serve time for the other offense. If the later, then he obviously should have to.
Until I wrote this, I had never thought of the topic before; that’s actually kind of an interesting distinction (*pats self on back).
skeebop - February 3, 2012
Our prison system does not care about rehabilitation.
It gives plenty of lip service to it, but it’s not part of what it does.
gzl5000 - February 3, 2012
personally i don't like spending my tax dollars
to house & feed idiots and fuckups who are no longer a menace to society. if they’ve changed their ways let them get out their and earn their own goddamn keep and pay some taxes themselves.
We’ve transformed prison into an industry in the US and that is SO fucked up and counter productive.
Nate Wilcox - February 3, 2012
Fair enough
I agree with the last bits but if someone beat up your sister, served time for beating someone else up first and got “rehabilitated” while incarcerated I think you’d be pretty miffed if he didn’t serve time for what he did to your sister.
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
That's because you're wanting revenge
which shouldn’t be the goal.
Shaun32887 - February 3, 2012
Of course they'd want revenge
America needs canings.
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
So all you have to do is say "I learned my lesson"
I don’t think thats a good way to ensure the safety of the general public.
warren305 - February 3, 2012
Well ya, that's what makes it interesting.
How do you determine when the line between rehabilitation and punishment has been crossed. And, for that matter, does it matter if it has been.
skeebop - February 3, 2012
Prison, in of itself, is not going to rehabilitate anyone, ever.
Its a punishment. The punishment is supposed to make you never want to be punished that way again, and therefore not commit the crime anymore. Rehabilitation is a myth in the penal system. Its just bullshit jargon, for the purpose of justifying the penal system.
You go to rehab to be rehabilitated.
warren305 - February 3, 2012
Sure...
if you want to get into completely subjective opinions on the nature and effects of incarceration.
Oddly, not everyone shares your (unquestionably, wholly-accurate) view.
skeebop - February 3, 2012
As a law student...
… I think that the other district should take into account a guy learning his lesson and getting his life back on track.
Jonathan. - February 3, 2012
Says who
He said he learned his lesson…okay? So what. That doesn’t make it true. Lol,if all you have to do is say “I learned my lesson” and not go to jail, well let me go rob a bank right now. Thats ridiculous
warren305 - February 3, 2012
Has he been arrested or has he talked to cops for acting foolish since he got released?
I think not. Is it fair to say that good behavior demonstrates a lesson learned -at least for now?
The guy did his time (for the first offense) cut him a lil slack until he slips again dude.
Jonathan, I agree. Also, people serve concurrent sentences for different crimes all the time, leniency shouldn’t be out of the question. Wouldn’t extended probation and house arrest be more reasonable?
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
Cut him some slack?!?
He’s a professional fighter that got drunk and assaulted a bunch of people, and then ran from the police. We’re not talking about crimes of passion, or crimes of necessity, we are talking about an idiot that hurt people for fun, then laughed about it on twitter. Excuse me while I find my violin
warren305 - February 3, 2012
he already did his time for that, remember?
I say cut him some slack because it seems asinine to rehabilitate someone retroactively for something they are supposed to be rehabilitated for already. WM seems to be making an effort to adjust and fit in to society. It is possible that people learn from their mistakes = cut him A LIL slack. Just a little.
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
As someone with siblings who are unemployed law school grads
I wish you luck and pray for your success.
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
The terrifying part bout law school, to me
is that success isn’t even determined until 5 or 10 years after graduation, after the debt is paid down.
I have two cousins who graduated near the tops of their law school classes.(at Fordham and BU, I believe). They practiced law just long enough to pay off their debt, then one became a caterer, and the other a entrepreneur.
The burnout rate of law school grads is terrifying.
skeebop - February 3, 2012
My brother is currently a 2L at Bolt and he has his job secure at Crowell
and the competition is insane. It’s top 20 school or bust, and a terrifying field.
sun yue - February 3, 2012
maybe war machine is hiring.
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
lol
“Well TOUGH TITTY, man!”
RolloTomasi - February 3, 2012
This is bat country.
mannfretti - February 4, 2012
Do you have any information regarding why he's being sentenced?
Or are you simply making baseless and general platitudes with no basis in the actual facts of this case?
Genki Sudo's Choreographer - February 3, 2012
Prison Industrial Complex
sun yue - February 3, 2012
War Machine makes nice license plates.
Jonathan. - February 3, 2012
This is more true than you know
Prison labor is the only way American industries can compete with the low cost of manpower from countries like China.
Can you think of anywhere else where it would be ok to pay someone cents for an hour of shit work?
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
It's contemporary US slavery.
sun yue - February 3, 2012
Oh great some conspiracy type stuff here. How many of those Chinese sweat shop workers make $47,000 a year? None? That is how much it costs on average per annum for one prisoner…. in 2008 so that doesn’t include inflation. Yeah, that is really cheap labor.
keyboardwarrior - February 3, 2012
Um, it isn't a conspiracy, man - it's business.
Private prisons charge the tax-payers to house convicts; that’s how they make money. They make even more money by putting prisoners to work. Prison labor may not be cheap for society as a whole, but it is cheap for the prison industry.
This isn’t a rant against prisons, btw.
Moper - February 3, 2012
many prisons are privately run for profit
It may cost the taxpayer money, but there are in fact business that run prison systems, make good money doing it, and their business model requires maintaining high levels of incarceration and demand for new facilities.
Thor77 - February 3, 2012
and they lobby hard for harsher laws.
esp on drugs & immigration offenses.
Nate Wilcox - February 3, 2012
Exactly. Which under the motto of “maximize shareholder value” is certainly a rational move on their part. Good for the country? Opinions may vary, but I’m going with no.
Thor77 - February 3, 2012
uh, are you aware that prisoner care is funded through taxes?
It goes like this:
-We pay their keep
-They work cheap
-Some douche is sitting atop a pile a cash.
This will explain it better than I can for you:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081012092544AAr2hQ3
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
It’s cheaper to outsource to Chinese factories, prisoners don’t make the same quality of product. You need to cultivate your prisons into cities first.
DirtyML - February 3, 2012
The prisons here at Fort Leavenworth
save the army millions
HitokiriX - February 3, 2012
Cultivate them into cities? We did that once, but Batman fucked the whole thing up. Then they made a video game about it.
MicahtheCynic - February 3, 2012
The premise of that game was soooo hard to swallow.
Not that stopped me from playing the hell out of it.
skeebop - February 3, 2012
Wait a minute!
Part of Gotham being turned into a prison-city was hard to swallow but a billionaire playboy dressing up as a costumed vigilante and fighting costumed criminals with military grade technology and expert martial arts training is ok?
I agree.
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
Yes
warren305 - February 3, 2012
You clearly..
don’t know much about Mark Cuban’s night life.
skeebop - February 3, 2012
Seriously, the premise is completely obsurd
warren305 - February 3, 2012
Batman Gogoplata FTW
Sugel Mendoza - February 3, 2012
True but it's a different crime he's been sentenced for, isn't it?
A year is the maximum sentence for a lot of misdemeanors so I wonder what the heck it was from.
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
Who knows, he may have a point.....some people take longer to grow up.
Taiter - February 3, 2012
Some things worth considering:
-He says on twitter that he’s gotta go back in for “some old shit” he just did a year. Time served? He can’t cut a deal?
-He mentioned being in keeps him from paying taxes, keeping him in jail will cost around $22,000 dollars of OTHER peoples taxes.
-Though he got in trouble like Junie, from what I read of War Machine he was really making an effort to put his best foot forward and leave the past behind him.
-Prisons are really overcrowded. I’d rather we watch him fight in a cage than he don’t get to watch him fight in a bathroom or cafeteria. He’s gonna fight, lets just televise it.
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
not having his blogs from jail left an empty hole in my life…another year of happiness awaits
Anr - February 3, 2012
i hope he chronicles his Pruno drinking experiences again.
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
I’ll be honest with you. The guy isn’t much of a person. Totally judgmental and tweets about really unnecessary things. Hates fat people, etc.
But he really has shown some more composure and knowing when to bite his tongue, as Kid Nate mentioned above. And tangling him up in an old offense isn’t really cool. I feel for the guy and hope all gets worked out. Also, the judge said some really rude things to him.
mountaineers101 - February 3, 2012
He’s allowed to hat fat people all he wants, he is not going to win any awards for being awesome at life, but he might win some for being terrible at it.
I don’t care if the glass is half full or half empty, but hopefully it is interesting to watch.
DirtyML - February 3, 2012
you mean I got to go back to jail for crimes I committed?
awww mannnnn!
HeadKickLegSweep - February 3, 2012
If only he was making that Floyd Mayweather money.
DirtyML - February 3, 2012
right?
Body Triangle - February 3, 2012
Wanna stop going to jail?
Stop doing dumb shit. Simple.
AB317 - February 3, 2012
He did.
They are throwing him back in for something old. Hence his complaint “I’m rehabilitated”
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
(that's con speak for I did my time bitch)
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
Violent crime rates have been decreasing since 1990, and yet prison populations continue to increase
It’s not that simple.
sun yue - February 3, 2012
1930s devil weed legislation. can’t let the mexicans win.
DirtyML - February 3, 2012
It is pretty simple
Correctional facilities have been increasingly privatized. They need to keep the labor supply going.
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
It's that, plus lobbying from the companies that supply government prisons,
from the construction companies that benefit from building new prisons due to inevitable overpopulation, from companies that benefit from prison labor, and lawyers who get paid for the increasing criminalization of, often, racialized bodies to expand what constitutes a crime.
sun yue - February 3, 2012
I wish no jail upon any man besides rapist and cold blooded killers and to do another year in jail is awful. He may have not been the most upsatnding citizen but war machine has kinda grown on me. The dudes got a ton of heart, not the most technical but always goes in to fight. So here goes another year of war machines jail diary.sigh
youfailme91 - February 3, 2012 via mobile
It's jail not prison
If he minds his manners and is rehab’d like he claims to be he’ll get time knocked off for good behavior and overcrowding.
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
Behaving well in an overcrowded area alone is hard to do, but for a War Machine? That’s like asking a honey badger to give a fuck, or like asking Conan O Brien to be funny or like thinking Chuck Liddell will stand still while watching a live fight. It’s just crazy talk. He’s serving the full term.
DirtyML - February 3, 2012
Are you saying
Honey badgers used to give a fuck?
TheFilt - February 3, 2012
"It's jail not prison"
Maybe you are a better man than me, but I would hate having to spend a year in an all-male environment that is ass-rape friendly. Regardless of what it’s called. :)
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
There's a huge difference between the two
Jail does a much better job of rehabing offenders and getting them into good work release programs.
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
True.
I’m sure the ass raping is equally shitty in both though.
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
Nah guys in jail usually aren't in for as long as prison so they're less apt to go rape someone and add to their time on the inside.
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
I hope War MAchine finds his Squirrel Master
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
Very likely, considering he's nuts
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
No! No! No! Devil man! Devil! Six six six, the mark of the beast! No! Naughty, naughty jungle of love!
Ikuhisa Quinoa - February 3, 2012
Yea but seriously were talking about war machine here if he gets through a whole year without a fight or any thing happening while he’s n jail. Hats off to him. I just don’t see that happening.
youfailme91 - February 3, 2012 via mobile
lol
agreed. I was impressed he didn’t screw up the first time. This time around I’m sure he feels the situation is less fair so I would argue his frustrations would be harder to control.
mannfretti - February 3, 2012
Very unfortunate
elmojo - February 3, 2012
In recent interviews, he seemed like he had become less crazy, maybe less dangerously impulsive. I’m curious to know exactly what old conviction he’s going away for this time. Seems like it must have been kind of serious if the judge didn’t take into account that WM had already done a year and and has thusfar behaved himself while out on probation. Maybe this is from the assault at the porno party?
mburtoni - February 3, 2012 via mobile
Could be they caught him on the upswing from a manic episode
DirtyML - February 3, 2012
And just like that, a spot opened up in Bellator’s next WW tournament. Marquardt’s manager should give them a call…
Shnak - February 3, 2012
Not gonna happen
Now that the UFC has signaled forgiveness is around the corner, there’s no way he signs a Bellator contract.
KGNLuc - February 3, 2012
Too bad. I’d like to see Askren finally tested by someone we know is good.
Shnak - February 3, 2012
I just have to wonder if this is his last outstanding charge.
Zachary Kater - February 3, 2012
I'm probably sure..
there is more shit he has gotten away with. Maybe this is the last thing he was being linked to still under investigation.
Crazynutts - February 3, 2012
Never thought I’d say this but I actually feel kinda bad for War Machine. It seemed like he was finally starting to grow up a bit and was getting his career back on track.
Brad Ackerson - February 3, 2012
Neger in a million years did I thing a guy named War Machine would do jail time.
And now twice…. MIND BLOWN
fightersvizion - February 3, 2012 via mobile
Mass incarceration in the US is a huge issue. The privatized prison industrial complex has made it hugely profitable to put people away for undeservedly long sentences despite sociologists showing it doesn’t deter criminals in the first place. Secondly, coupled with the war on drugs, most people are incarcerated for mere drug possession. It’s all designed to make the poor minorities in America second class citizens.
Democritus - February 3, 2012
Nailed it. Some of the numbers are mindblowing.
Like the US holding 25% of the world’s prison population? Shit’s crazy.
sun yue - February 3, 2012
California prison guard union has a huge amount of power
And they use it to push bills to keep people locked up longer and for less. War on Drugs is a failure for most, but hugely profitable for some.
BonesBloodyElbow - February 3, 2012
Whatever
I lost total respect since he changed his name then I want to rid of his existence since he wasn’t hittin Asa Akira right. And if you’ve seen this woman in action then you understand what I’m talking about.
Not saying I ahve I’m just saying….
Krimson - February 3, 2012
If you changed your name to Battle Contraption she'd be on your lap before you could say STD panel
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
Don't tempt me
That woman…she’s………talented
Krimson - February 3, 2012
Stop it, BE.
I know Bloody Elbow is basically the TMZ and Perez Hilton of MMA blogs these days, but instead of kicking someone when they are down, how about showing a little positivity?
I had been following him on twitter and he seemed to be doing really good and keeping out of trouble. He would have the odd tweet here and there but so does every MMA fighter. He had his mind focused on his Bellator career as well as teaching at an MMA school. I feel bad for him. He seemed on the right path, but once you’re in the system it’s almost impossible to get out because you were never told to file this or that paperwork with this or that department and it always results in a warrant you’re never made aware of and a resulting parole violation which puts you right back where you were before.
NoHo - February 3, 2012 via mobile
Thanks for the input Mrs. Kopenhaver
I’m sure your son will be OK.
menckenstein - February 3, 2012
I absolutely agree with NoHo here
The guy has been trying very hard and kept out of trouble and he is a good guy. We are not perfect but isnt it just weird to put him back to jail because the judge says that she THINKS that he used steroids and that he is angry.. thats simply awful and without evidence i dont even see how could he be put back to jail just like that… War Machine is no Junie Browning, no maniac or whatsoever, he s been non stop training and do his duty these months and thats it. So i m very shocked to hear these news because he s been trying very hard, not even answerig to open confrontations toward him and yet he has to go back.. i do think the determination by people who has already served in jail can only be understood by those who have already been there..
szanpan - February 3, 2012
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