Mark Kerr earned a reputation as a destructive force very early on in his career.
In an upcoming A24 movie, written and directed by Benny Safdie, some significant chapters of the former UFC fighter’s life will hit the big screen.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson knew that playing Kerr would be a daunting task in ‘The Smashing Machine’.
Johnson even took real punches to make his performance as realistic as possible, which wouldn’t have been easy considering the brutality of some of the fights.
The UFC Hall of Famer recently told the story of how he received the nickname that the film, and a previous documentary, took its name from.
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Mark Kerr was nicknamed ‘The Smashing Machine’ by a Brazilian magazine after one of his first fights
Mark Kerr suffered some incredibly difficult losses during his career before fighting for the last time in August of 2009.
However, particularly before he lost his undefeated record, Kerr also delivered some ruthless beatings in the very early days of mixed martial arts.
One of these wins is what saw him first earn the nickname of ‘The Smashing Machine’.
Kerr recently explained during an appearance on the JAXXON Podcast that the moniker was given to him following the first night of his pro career where he faced three different opponents.
The finals of the World Vale Tudo Championship 3 heavyweight tournament in 1997 saw him face Brazil’s Fabio Gurgel.
“I couldn’t wrap my head around this while it was happening. He wouldn’t quit. The place where we fought, this little hotel called Maksoud Plaza. We fought in the basement of a hotel and it was like 600 dudes that were all like Fabio’s students and Brazilian fight fans and there was no way he was giving up.”
Kerr ended up winning a decision at the end of a staggering half-hour bout after beating his two previous opponents in less than five minutes combined.
“I straight up broke his orbital with headbutts. His eye was swelled up like this. There was supposed to be no time limit. You’re supposed to just fight until somebody gave up. So, I think the name of the magazine was called Otaname [actually called Tatame], it was a Brazilian fight magazine and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
“On the cover of it, it says ‘Maquine de Bater’, the machine that smashes, and it’s a picture of me just mauling Fabio.”
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Mark Kerr described watching ‘The Smashing Machine’ as ‘therapy’
Mark Kerr going through difficult moments when competing aren’t the only times that audiences will see him, played by Dwayne Johnson, face adversity in the upcoming movie.
Anyone who has seen the documentary will know that ‘The Smashing Machine’ is about much more than just the life of a professional fighter.
Kerr recently said on the Joe Rogan Experience that watching the movie gave him a chance to revisit some of these moments in his life with a new perspective.
“I said it was therapy for me because I think, for the first time, I could actually see my part in it. Like I could see my part, how f—— hard I was on the people around me, how just how singularly driven I was to accomplish something at all cost.”
The movie that tells part of Kerr’s story is set to release next week on October 3.