The highs and lows of Mark Kerr

Here is a guy who had some of the greatest potential in the sport of mixed martial arts early in its evolution.  For some of the newer fans who may not be familar with Kerr, he took the MMA world by storm in 1997 owning the UFC with 4 straight vicious wins that year in the heavyweight division.  Combined with fighting in other organizations, Mark’s early record was 12-0 with most coming by way of submission or Ko.  He was a truly exciting fighter to watch and a pioneer of MMA.  He even had one of the sport’s first documentries out, The Smashing Machine.  He was riding high, then it all fell apart

In 2000 he suffered his first loss at the hands of Kazuyuki Fujita (it later came out that was battling an addiction to pain killers).  Although he bounced back with a victory in his following bout he has lost his five last matches.  During that time period, Kerr has looked flat and out of shape, a fallen icon of sorts.

I happened to run into Kerr in Phoenix not long ago and he looks like the Kerr of old.  He says he’s taking his training  very seriously these days and is looking to get back into the UFC.  Kerr is a nice guy  who is very accessible to MMA fans.  We wish him the best of luck as he steps back into the cage at Global Fighting Championships on 8/17. 

Monday, July 30th, 2007 | File under Commentary, MMA Fighters