Mark Kerr was truly one of the first true superstars of mixed marital arts. At the time he entered the sport he did so with a craving not only for a career but for competition. The combination of his skill set and overwhelming power propelled him quickly into the spotlight of a still young UFC organization. The Smashing Machine's rise and fall seemed to occur within the blink of an eye. Yet his contribution to the sport is still felt to this day.
Kerr was a very good wrestler who tasted success on both the high school and college levels earning championships at both. He was a brilliant competitor who understood the nature of competition and entered the world of mixed martial arts as a way to earn money and still have the ability to compete at a high level. Mark entered into his first Vale Tudo tournament in 1997 and won three successive fights in dominating fashion to win the tourney. Through his utter dominance and force the smashing machine had been born.
Kerr was promptly invited to compete in the UFC 14 tournament where he would dominate once again. He competed and won both the UFC 14 and 15 tournaments impressively over all four opponents. He was so impressive that he has spent less than six minutes inside the octagon through all four of his UFC bouts. Of course at the time MMA was seen as a blood sport and the UFC was banned throughout many states. The company was under heavy financial pressure and could not afford to pay their fighters a fair rate. So Kerr did what many fighters including UFC hall of famer Mark Coleman did; he headed to the land of the rising sun.
The Pride Fighting Championships began putting on shows in 1997. They were able to pull down gates twice the size and more in some cases than the UFC. In doing so Pride was able to bring many skilled and popular fighters over to their promotion. Mark entered went to Pride and competed in Pride 2. At this time he was widely considered to be one of the best mixed martial artists in the world. He was undefeated, dominant and seemed to be unstoppable. After posting astounding victories at Prides 2, 3, 4 and 6 mark seemed poise to go down as the greatest in history. As it would turn out, it seemed the only person that could stop Mark Kerr was Mark Kerr himself.
After years of athletic competition and intense battles mark had developed nagging injuries that would begin a struggle with prescription painkillers. This was well documented in the feature documentary about Mark entitled "The Smashing Machine." The film shows his rise to glory here in the states and then abroad, then depicts the sad realty of his addiction and the subsequent failures that beset him inside the ring. You get an inside glimpse of how personal habits and relationships can damage a fighter from the inside out.
Kerr would suffer an overdose in October of 1999 and would ultimately cancel a scheduled fight and enter into drug rehab. He seemed to emerge from the experience as a better person and focused on his career. He would end a troubled relationship with his girlfriend and would once again seek intense training from his friend Bas Rutten. Kerr appeared to have things back on track when he defeated Enson Inoue via decision at the first Pride Grand Prix in 2000. Enson was a very skilled fighter and Kerr was able to repeatedly take him down and keep him down while delivering his trademarked smashing machine style to Inoue. The victory looked to propel him back into serious contention for the Grand Prix title and back into elite status.
His bid for greatness unfortunately was short-lived as once again he entered back into the same tumultuous relationship with his prior girlfriend and fell back into a negative pattern of behavior. These same habits caused his focus to strain and his training habits to lack. Once again as a result of this he was defeated soundly by Fujita in the second round of the Grand Prix and his career has really not been the same since.
Kerr began his career with eleven straight victories and since that time he has struggled through a period of eleven losses with four wins and one no contest. His last outing was a loss versus "King Mo" Muhammed Lawal at M1 breakthrough back in August of 2009. Kerr was TKO'd by Lawal in just 25 seconds of the very first round, a similar fate that beset opponents of the Smashing Machine early in his career.
It is hard to say if Mark Kerr will ever fight again. At this point it seems as though he will not. It could be likely that he would be brought in by a smaller organization to give them name recognition in order to put butts in seats. But as far as being a serious contender again that is just not a likely scenario.
With that said, Kerr was an early pioneer of the sport who brought ground and pound to a new level, and he was an innovator who constantly looked to improve his game in other areas so he could become as well rounded as possible. Given his pedigree and demeanor I would not rule out seeing him become a top level trainer in the sport. Regardless what happens, Kerr will always be an influential and appealing individual in the world of mixed martial arts, and his status as a pioneer will never be in question.
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Bob Teal is a lifelong resident of Cincinnati, Ohio. I am grateful for the opportunity to bring you up to date on fighters you might have forgotten about or perhaps never even knew. Are there any fighters you would like me to write about? Submit your suggestions to me. You can email me at robertjteal@aol.com. For those of you who have responded I truly appreciate your feedback! Thanks for reading MMATorch!
