https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkawzpnuc-0 At the height of his career, Mark Kerr was a force to be reckoned with. He was able to thrive in a clearly weak field in MMA in general at the time. After destroying everybody in the World Vale Tudo Championship 3 tournament, Kerr was invited to fight in the UFC 14 Heavyweight Tournament. Kerr ran through everyone in both that tournament and at UFC 15. Since at the time there was not a lot of money in the UFC, Kerr went where the money was in Japan with Pride Fighting Championships. Kerr continued to smash through opponents until he ran met opponent Igor Vovchanchyn at Pride 7 where he was originally defeated via TKO (the loss was later declared a no contest due to illegal knees). Due to a variety of factors such as his addiction to pain killers, relationship problems with his at the time girlfriend, and his inability to adapt the the changing landscape of MMA, Kerr's career went on a downward spiral. The events leading up to his loss to Kazuyuki Fujita in the Pride Grand Prix 2000 Finals were documented in the HBO documentary The Smashing Machine. It is truly sad to watch the career of such a promising fighter dwindle into another battle worn veteran. Following the events of The Smashing Machine, Kerr would go a dismal 3-10 in his career, trying several times to make a comeback but failing. It was Kerr's fierce ground and pound that led Kerr to become a monster in MMA and it was ironically enough his inability to expand past that technique that led to Kerr's downfall in MMA.
Matthew Salzer fell in love with Mixed Martial Arts when he watched Pride Fighting Championships on Japanese TV. He is a lifelong wrestler having earned a Bachelor of Science at Missouri Baptist University. Matthew is the Senior Editor at MMA Freak and has written for Funky Monkey MMA, H4 Entertainment, and MMA Fiends.