WHEN Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wanted to challenge himself as an actor by exploring the pain of a fight, he looked no further than cage fighting star Mark Kerr.
Few sportsmen have shown as much agony as two-time mixed martial arts heavyweight champion Mark – and suffered as much in return.
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The 19-stone mountain man punched his opponents with his bare fists, gouged out their eyes and head-butted them.
The WWE ring brawls that made The Rock famous seem tame in comparison.
Now the Hollywood heavyweight, more accustomed to playing comedic action characters, will take to the screen as the legendary fighter in his first serious role.
I’m at a point in my career where I want to push myself in a way I haven’t in the past. I want to make films that matter, that explore humanity and explore the pain of struggle
Dwayne The Rock Johnson
And the 52-year-old hopes his entire head hair in The Smashing Machine isn’t the only thing that will surprise fans as he transforms into the deeply disturbed main character.
The Rock said: “I’m at a point in my career where I want to push myself in a way that I haven’t in the past. I want to make films that matter, that explore humanity and explore the pain of struggle.”
The film will show how Mark – who in the 90s trained at the same gym as Johnson – fought his way to glory.
But steroids, painkillers and methadone turned this giant of the ring into a tearful wreck – even leaving him gasping for his life after an overdose.
In production now, the film also stars Emily Blunt as Mark’s ex-wife Dawn Staples, while world heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk makes his acting debut as the Mixed Martial Arts rival.
In an exclusive interview, Mark, who retired from the ring in 2009 and became a car dealer, reveals how deep he went in reaching the heights of MMA.
‘Dirty secret’
Born in Toledo, Ohio, the youngest of six children, he wrestled with his brother Matt from an early age and began wrestling in high school.
Although he describes his father Tom as an alcoholic, he says he came from a “great family” where his mother Mary “put a lot of pressure on me to succeed in sports”.
His sports career took off while studying at Syracuse University in the state of New York, and in 1992, at the age of 24, he won the US National Collegiate Athletic Association.
This led him to the infamous Foxcatcher wrestling center, run by millionaire John du Pont, where Mark hoped to fulfill his dream of making the Olympic team.
But four years later everything went terribly wrong.
Mark recalls: “In January 1996, my friend Dave Shultz was murdered by John Du Pont, the owner of the Foxcatcher facility for whom I had fought.”
Eccentric and controlling, du Pont shot wrestler Dave, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist, who trained and coached at his Pennsylvania gym.
No motive was established and du Pont later died in prison while serving a 13- to 30-year sentence for the murder. The sad story took place in the 2014 film Foxcatcher, starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo.
Later that January, Mark’s beloved mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer – succumbing to it in September 1996.
Then an injury dashed his hopes of making the team for that year’s Atlanta Olympics.
In need of money, Mark turned to MMA, which in 1997 was a much more brutal sport than it is today.
At that time, no gloves were used and virtually anything was allowed on the blood-stained canvas, including Mark punching another wrestler after they escaped the ropes.
This animal instinct was captured in a 2002 documentary about Mark, also titled The Smashing Machine.
In it, he states that his attitude was: “I’m going to hurt him before he hurts me.”
The fights were so violent that Senator John McCain called the sport “human cockfighting.”
Along with other US politicians, he effectively had Ultimate Fighting Championship – an American MMA promotion company – banned from television in 1996.
Mark recalls: “I remember looking for VHS tapes to fight on. The UFC video tapes were in the back of the video store, on the right next to pornography. It was a dirty secret.
In 1997, Mark won two consecutive UFC heavyweight titles, the second victory just a minute into the fight. But restrictions on TV money in the US led Mark to chase the highest fight rates in Japan.
At the height of his career he was earning over £150,000 per fight.
His biggest clash came in 1999, against Ukrainian heavyweight Igor Vovchanchyn.
Igor broke the rules by kneeing Mark in the head while he was on the ground and it was ruled a “no contest”, effectively a draw.
You reach a point where you’re not getting enough oxygen and your blood becomes acidic.
Mark Kerr
Although gloves were introduced in 1997 and a ban on blows to the spine, throat and back was introduced in 2001, the sport was still grueling.
Instead of giving his broken body the recovery time it needed, Mark chose a quicker path.
He reveals: “Instead of doing rehab the shortcut for me was just taking narcotics, steroids and taking painkillers and training. I didn’t know what chemical dependency was to the point that if I didn’t consume it daily I would become seriously ill.
“Once I became addicted to drugs, which included using opioids, I can’t go back and say, oh, I’m going to use them casually — it doesn’t work like that.”
In the documentary, he openly uses syringes to inject himself with painkillers. He was also taking steroids to enhance his bulging muscles.
Mark says: “I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into and the real dangers of using performance-enhancing drugs.”
Things got worse when he added methadone, a heroin substitute, to the cocktail of substances swirling around his body.
He recalls: “I had no idea how horrible this narcotic was.”
It almost killed him.
Mark explains: “It turned off my breathing and my heart rate. You get to a point where you’re not getting enough oxygen and your blood becomes acidic.”
In October 1999, he suffered an overdose and faced a battle for survival in the hospital.
He continues: “Either you get out of this situation or you fall deeper into it. It was one of those scary experiences.”
Mentally scarred
Mark overcame it, but the episode left him scarred mentally and physically.
It’s like you’re in a 1,000-foot building and suddenly you think gravity doesn’t apply and you step off the edge. Gravity applies to everyone.
Mark Kerr
He says: “A year after that, I would wake up trying to catch my breath like I was drowning. It was absolutely horrible.”
The fighter also had a long battle with alcohol, which he often abused when he was off other substances. Friends convinced Mark to go to rehab and he is now drink and drug free.
He says: “I’ve been sober for a while now and completely disconnected from everything, but it’s been a long process.
“Part of my downfall as an athlete is that sometimes I feel like the rules don’t apply to me.
“It’s like you’re in a 1,000-foot building and suddenly you think gravity doesn’t apply and you step off the edge. Gravity applies to everyone.”
However, his chaotic lifestyle greatly damaged his relationship with his wife Dawn.
He and the former Playboy model – who has a 19-year-old son, Bryce – divorced in 2006 after a six-year marriage.
He admits: “There were physical altercations between me and Dawn. We would get into physical and verbal fights with each other.
“Tumultuous is probably not the right word. It was really a toxic, crazy, unhealthy relationship.”
The couple are now good friends and Mark recently remarried, becoming engaged to fitness consultant Franci Alberding.
Mark has fought to get back to his best and feels the public is England failed to witness the real Smashing Machine when he lost to Mustapha Al-Turk in the 2007 London Cage Rage tournament.
He admits: “For my Cage Rage fight I would really like to be in a better place emotionally, mentally and physically.”
Five career-ending losses convinced him to retire in 2009 and he joined a Toyota dealership.
Today he runs a company that provides fitness equipment.
Seeing The Rock bring his life story to the big screen is a peculiar twist considering the pair met in 1999 when they trained at the same gym in Venice Beach, Los Angeles.
Of their first date years ago, he recalls, “Dwayne Johnson literally comes and tracks me down at the gym and says, ‘Hey, do you want to have lunch?’ He’s asking me all these questions about what it’s like to fight in Japan.”
Twenty years later, Johnson reached out again and said to Mark “Hey, let’s make a movie about your life. This is one of my passions.”
About facing Usyk, who plays Igor, on set, Johnson joked: “don’t break my jaw, champ.”
Before filming, The Rock told Mark, “It’s the greatest honor of my life to play this role.”
Mark believes the actor will do justice to his life story, concluding: “It gives me goosebumps because when he says it you know he means it.”
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
