Dwayne Johnson is raking in praise from all corners of the world for his biopic on MMA legend Mark Kerr, The Smashing Machine. However, UFC legend Don Frye isn’t really happy about a film being made about the Pride Fighting Championship legend. Moreover, he even cussed out The Rock for representing Kerr in a movie.
An Instagram handle by the name of Film Inquirer added a reel on the platform showcasing Don Frye’s reaction to The Smashing Machine. The UFC Hall of Famer called Mark Kerr a goof and an idiot and mocked him for being scared to fight.
Mark Kerr, the fu**ing goof. He’s a fu**ing good. Jeez. Anybody who knows him knows he’s a goof. Rock’s a dumbass to do that [play Kerr’s role]; he should pick somebody better to represent. Kerr ain’t the one. Kerr’s a fu**ing goof. He’s a fu**ing idiot. You know, sit there and say he was scared the whole time, and he never wanted to fight. He did a good job for a scared coward, you know. Of course, he’s juiced out his fu**ing brain, you know.
Don Frye didn’t give any reasons for his comments. Unlike what he believes, however, Dwayne Johnson and Mark Kerr are receiving a lot of praise around the globe for the film.
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EA Sports even created an in-game character for Kerr in its game, UFC 5, despite the legend fighting just four times under the UFC banner. Moreover, the movie is doing amazingly on the business front as well, earning $850K from its first day of release.
The Smashing Machine Showcases an Aspect Where Mark Kerr and Don Frye Did the Same Thing
The Smashing Machine showcases Mark Kerr dealing with his addiction to painkillers and constantly entering matches to fight, since he was almost indomitable. Interestingly, this is something Don Frye has in common with Kerr.
In a May 2025 episode of the Submission Radio podcast, Don Frye sent a message to Alex Pereira. He advised the former UFC light heavyweight and middleweight champion to tread carefully and not schedule matches very frequently.
This was in response to Pereira’s schedule, which includes very little rest between his fights. Frye sent this message while Pereira was preparing for his second bout against Magomed Ankalaev, a fighter he lost to in his first bout. Don Frye said (via BJ Penn):
Well, if you’re hurt, take the time off and heal up. I never did. I always popped the pills and kept going, you know, fighting through it… That ended up making my career take a s–t, my career. Come to find out, the promoter don’t give a damn. They don’t give a damn about you. I haven’t got one Christmas card or birthday card from any promoter ever… And I made them all lots and lots of f–king money… I almost like died in the hospital a couple of times, and nobody ever called me up and said, ‘How you doing? Hope you’re better.’
This advice showcases that Don Frye was also dealing with pumping his body with painkillers and shoving himself back into fights, just like Mark Kerr. Moreover, the two MMA legends were also active during the same time in the late 1990s and the 2010s. Thus, while Don Frye may not like Mark Kerr, both of them were in the grip of a similar problem while fighting their matches.
Dwayne Johnson Explains Why The Smashing Machine Was the Right Film at the Right Time for Him
Dwayne Johnson recently gave an interview to Sports Illustrated in regard to the release of The Smashing Machine. The Rock explained why he chose to do the film and play the character of Mark Kerr, stating that he feels very connected to the MMA legend (via Sports Illustrated):
I felt like there was some real connective tissue with Mark’s life and my own. Sure, today. But in the ’90s there were a lot of crossings in our worlds. There were a lot of pro wrestlers who then joined PRIDE. A lot of MMA guys came to wrestling. And I was always in awe of Mark.
As the years went by, we both suffered a lot of losses. We lost a lot of friends to addiction and to suicide—there was a rash in both of our businesses in those late ’90s, early 2000s. When I watched the [Smashing Machine] documentary years ago, I had just started acting. I felt then, “God, I would love to play Mark Kerr.”
Dwayne Johnson also explained how he secured all the rights he needed to make a biopic on Kerr’s life in 2019. He noted that he personally met and spoke to the MMA legend at the time, as well as the movie’s director, Benny Safdie. However, things came to a halt when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Despite this, Dwayne Johnson knew that he just had to tell the story of Mark Kerr because of the profound respect he carried for him, as well as for MMA. He also said that he needed to do this film since it required him to dive deep and challenge himself.
Did you watch The Smashing Machine? Did the life of Mark Kerr, enacted by Dwayne Johnson, inspire you? Pour your thoughts down in the comments section.
