Mark Kerr headed to UFC Hall of Fame's Pioneer Wing
Mark Kerr is the latest fighter who will head to the UFC Hall of Fame later this month.
Kerr, who won the UFC 14 and UFC 15 heavyweight tournaments, will go into the Hall's Pioneer Wing, the promotion announced Saturday during the UFC 316 pay-per-view broadcast. The induction ceremony takes place in Las Vegas as part of International Fight Week for UFC 317.
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"Mark Kerr was a high-level wrestler who also fought for PRIDE and was one of the early pioneers of the sport," UFC CEO Dana White said in a news release.
Kerr will be the 21st member of the Pioneer Wing, which has fighters who became professional largely in the 1990s ahead of the adoption of a unified ruleset.
Kerr is one of just five fighters with multiple UFC tournament wins. The other four all are in the UFC Hall of Fame: Royce Gracie, Mark Coleman, Dan Severn and Don Frye.
Kerr and his "Smashing Machine" nickname became legendary, and his background is legendary enough that an upcoming biopic starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson already is garnering acclaim. Johnson will be on hand to induct Kerr into the Hall, the UFC announced.
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The UFC's news release includes this about Kerr's non-UFC pursuits:
Outside the Octagon, the 56-year old Kerr served as the subject of a critically acclaimed documentary titled The Smashing Machine, which chronicled his career while competing across multiple MMA organizations. A film with the same name, starring Dwayne Johnson as Kerr, is set to be released by A24 on October 3.
A native of Toledo, Ohio, Kerr began his wrestling career as a freshman at Bettendorf High School in Iowa, where he was a teammate of future UFC Hall of Famer Pat Miletich. Kerr returned to Toledo and joined the wrestling team at Waite High School, becoming Ohio Division I state champion in 1986.
Following high school, Kerr began his collegiate wrestling career at Syracuse University, competing for the Orangemen in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association. During his tenure on the collegiate mats, Kerr won the conference title in 1989, 1991 and 1992, while also earning All-America honors and the NCAA Division I National Championship in his final season.
Kerr would spend the next four years as a freestyle wrestler, winning silver and gold medals during the United World Wrestling World Cup in 1992 and 1994, as well as the silver medal at the UWW Pan American Games in 1995. He also won the USA Wrestling World Team Trials in 1993 and 1994.
Kerr also competed in ADCC Submission Fighting Championship, a grappling competition, defeating future UFC heavyweight champions Josh Barnett and Ricco Rodriguez en route to winning gold medals during the 1999, 2000 and 2001 tournaments. In 2022, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the ADCC Hall of Fame.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Mark Kerr headed to UFC Hall of Fame's Pioneer Wing
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