ESPN Covers 'The Tragic Love Story of Christy Mack'

CYBERSPACE—It's been about nine months since adult performer Christy Mack was severely beaten by her then-boyfriend Jon "War Machine" Koppenhaver, and today ESPN.com is updating its readers on the story, though the sports angle—Koppenhaver himself—remains in the hoosegow, now on a suicide watch after having apparently tried to hang himself in his cell on October 14, with a note beside him claiming he was being railroaded on several charges. As for Mack, ESPN reporter Jane McManus reports that she's recovering nicely, as is apparent from a recent photo (shown here), although the bones around her eyes were so damaged that she currently needs glasses (which she described as "cute") and has veneers temporarily replacing some of the teeth that Koppenhaver knocked out when he beat her. "Found out the fake parts of my teeth glow in the tanning bed. So that's fun, I guess," Christy tweeted in December. "I'm glad that doesn't happen with my boobs ..." McManus' article does a fairly good job of tracing Christy's early life, her entry into XXX, and some of her adult industry recognition (not to mention the hateful tweets others posted after her beating), describing Koppenhaver's middle-of-the-night attack on Christy in her bedroom and bringing readers somewhat up to date also on what on what Koppenhaver's doing now—he's in solitary, and neither he nor his lawyer were willing to talk to McManus for the article—and revealing that Koppenhaver continues to maintain his complete innocence about the attack. "I'm not a bad guy," he tweeted while on the run from the police. "I went to surprise my gf, help her set up her show and to give her an engagement ring and ended up fighting for my life." Christy, however, provided McManus with details of several previous beatings by Koppenhaver, who she said was always affectionate and apologetic afterwards—but the attack in August of 2014, according to the article, "left her unable to walk for a week because of the injuries to her thigh. Her liver had been ruptured from punches and kicks to her body—the liver injury was so bad that doctors opted to not operate on her face because they worried she couldn't handle being put under anesthesia. She had 18 broken bones, a broken nose, multiple missing and broken teeth, and a fractured rib." And while she was being beaten, Koppenhaver allegedly said, "That is my pussy, and I'm going to take it back now." And when Christy testified against her abuser in court at a pretrial hearing, her testimony "elicited laughs and smiles from the defendant," which the judge at the hearing noted on the official record—never a good thing. As for Christy, she's all about getting on with her life, though it was unclear whether she plans to return to adult acting. But one thing is high on her agenda: Getting a new tattoo to cover one of the old ones—the one that says, "Property of War Machine." The entire ESPN story can be found here. Pictured above, Christy Mack in January 2015 at the AVN Awards Show; photo by EMMreport.com