Disgraced MMA fighter serving life sentence gets engaged to pen pal with bizarre love poem
The last time we heard about War Machine, the former mixed martial arts fighter was being sentenced to life in prison for brutally attacking his ex-girlfriend.
War Machine is making news again; this time from his prison cell in Nevada. He recently got engaged to 30-year-old Ashley Farrington who was his pen pal and is now his fiancée.
The two first met when Farrington wrote to War Machine in July of last year, a month after he began serving his prison sentence. The two continued to correspond over the next few months until War Machine penned a poem to Farrington in February 2018.
The bizarre poem, which can be viewed in its entirety here, includes lines such as, “Did He cut me open and make out of me, a you?” and “Ashley, I wish I could die for you.”
When War Machine gave the letter to Farrington, he also dropped to one knee and proposed to her despite having no engagement ring.
Farrington apparently said yes and the two are now engaged. They’ll be allowed to have a wedding ceremony in prison but Nevada doesn’t allow for conjugal visits.
The two won’t get to consummate the marriage for quite some time as War Machine is not eligible for parole for another 35 years. He will be 71 at that time while Farrington will be 65.
War Machine was 14-5 in his MMA career which began professionally in 2004. His last fight came with Bellator in 2013.
He fought twice in UFC, including being a part of The Ultimate Fighter series. He was awarded Knockout of the Night and Fight of the Night in his UFC debut, but would fight for the promotion just once more at UFC 84 in 2008.
With his limited success in the octagon, War Machine is best known for the horrific attack on his girlfriend at the time, adult film star Christy Mack.
In August 2014, Mack and her friend were attacked by War Machine in their home after the two had broken up. Mack was taken to the hospital where it was revealed she suffered 18 broken bones, a broken nose, missing teeth, a fractured rib and a ruptured liver.
“I have no recollection of how many times I was hit, I just know my injuries that resulted from the beating,” Mack wrote on Twitter. “My injuries include 18 broken bones around my eyes, my nose is broken in two places, I am missing teeth and several more are broken. I am unable to chew, or see out of my left eye. My speech is slurred from my swelling and lack of teeth, I have a fractured rib and severely ruptured liver from a kick to my side.
“My leg is so badly injured I have not been able to walk on my own. I also attained (sic) several lesions from a knife he got from my kitchen. He pushed the knife into me in some areas such as my hand, ear and head. He also sawed much of my hair off with this dull knife.”
Mack also said that War Machine attempted to rape her, but she escaped and ran to a neighbor’s house. Police then began a manhunt for War Machine that was joined by Dog the Bounty Hunter of reality TV fame.
War Machine was found by U.S. Marshals and three years later was convicted on 29 felony counts. The jury deadlocked on two attempted murder charges, but in June 2017 he was sentenced to life in prison with the first chance of parole coming in 2053.
War Machine is maintaining a prison blog that sometimes gets posted to his Twitter account. His last message on May 5 states, “Ely State Prison is 100% out of control, people are being murdered left and right. And it seems to all be by DESIGN!”
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