The MMA Mental Hall of Fame: War Machine
Filed Under (MMA) by admin on 27-03-2009
Tagged Under : Jon Koppenhaver, MMA Mental Hall of Fame
Forget for a moment that it is a little odd to change your name from something normal like, say, Jon Koppenhaver to something bizarre and ridiculous like, say, WAR MACHINE. But that aside, we have in “The Fighter Formerly Known as Koppenhaver” one of modern MMA’s most notable mentals.
War Machine first burst onto the scene as a replacement for an injured fighter on the Matt Serra vs. Matt Hughes season of The Ultimate Fighter. On day one, coach Matt Serra was enthusiastic about Koppenhaver, impressed by his tattoos and claiming he “looked like a fighter.” It was a matter of days before Serra was banging his head against the wall as he tried to figure out whether he was a coach, babysitter or psychotherapist.
In Koppenhaver’s defense, he appears to have gone through some tough times. But his issues tend to manifest themselves in unusual ways. While on the show, he participated in an “upper decker” toilet prank on the opposing team (do your own research) which led to a near in-house scrap with Jared “J-Roc” Rollins. The two faced each other on the undercard of the season finale, and when Koppenhaver knocked Rollins out, he quickly commenced a Terrell Owens-like breakdown in empathy for his fallen foe.
It all went downhill from here. After Evan Tanner’s unfortunate death, War Machine made some questionable comments in the immediate aftermath suggesting that it was a suicide, earning him a swift boot from his UFC contract. He then went on to write a long series of controversial blog posts, including the statement that someone should “smoke” President Barack Obama. This latter statement got him booted from Bellator Fighting Championship.
War Machine made perhaps the biggest headlines when he was arrested for a fight at a gay nightclub where he was working. This followed an earlier arrest in 2007 for choking out a man in a parking lot.
In the following video, War Machine discusses a few of the issues he has run into with his behavior, but seems to hold out hope for the future. The guy’s still young. There could be either a great MMA career or an MMA Mental Lifetime Achievement Award in the future.