Joe Rogan Experience #2384 - Mark Kerr

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. NANarrator0:00

      (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. (drumbeats)

   2. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) Good. Mark, what's happening?

   3. MKMark Kerr0:14

      Joe.

   4. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      Dude, the movie's fantastic. And I, and I know I told you outside, but I wanted to save it. Uh, when I kind of have a, had a little bit of a prejudice when I went to see the movie. I was like, "Okay, it's gonna be an MMA movie."

   5. MKMark Kerr0:26

      Yeah.

   6. NANarrator0:26

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:26

      But it's not. It's a movie that happens to be about MMA, but it's a great movie.

   8. MKMark Kerr0:32

      Oh, I appreciate that.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:32

      It's, it's really good, man. It's, it's like, you know, it's v- very gripping, and the performances are fantastic, and the way The Rock did you was nuts.

   10. MKMark Kerr0:43

       I, like, I can't explain it. Uh, it, I, I keep using the word surreal, but it doesn't describe it. Um, like I was saying that, uh, my son, when he watched it, and just flipping out, like, talking to me, like on the side, like I was saying, like literally just going, "Dad, Dad, he's got your mannerisms."

   11. NANarrator1:04

       (laughs)

   12. MKMark Kerr1:04

       "He's got your speech manner." But if you imagine, like I'm, I'm picturing my son, he's in New York when he watched it. Like-

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:10

       Right.

   14. MKMark Kerr1:10

       Uh, and so I'm picturing him in the corner of the lobby of the theater, talking with his back to everybody going, "Oh my God, Dad, like, it's like a doppelganger."

   15. NANarrator1:20

       (laughs)

   16. MKMark Kerr1:20

       "He's got all of it." You know, like full-blown, like, it was like the, the, the, 'cause a lot of my saying for myself is I'm, uh, I can't see the forest through the trees. I'm in the middle of it. Am I looking at it objectively? Am I really looking at it, or am I seeing something? And to hear my son say, "Oh my gosh, Dad, he nailed it."

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:37

       Right. No, he-

   18. MKMark Kerr1:38

       Unbelievable.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:39

       He really did nail it. I, like we were saying in the lobby, like, I didn't know The Rock could act that well.

   20. MKMark Kerr1:45

       You know-

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:45

       But it's really good acting. It's not like blockbuster movie acting, which is, he's great at that, but-

   22. MKMark Kerr1:51

       Yep.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:51

       ... it's, it's a different thing.

   24. MKMark Kerr1:52

       It, it, it's compl- it, so with DJ, I kept trying to say to him, "You don't have to do this, dude. Like, you don't have to do this." And he would, he would stop me and he would go, "Yeah, I do. I do."

   25. JRJoe Rogan2:05

       What do you mean by you don't have to do this? You don't have to, like-

   26. MKMark Kerr2:06

       So meaning that, like, he's at a, he's at-

   27. JRJoe Rogan2:08

       ... totally beat me?

   28. MKMark Kerr2:09

       He's at a place in his life where he can just keep doing blockbusters and be perfectly fine with it.

   29. JRJoe Rogan2:14

       Mm-hmm.

   30. MKMark Kerr2:14

       There's, there is, uh, uh, I mean, he says it himself, there's always a place for that. There's always gonna be a place for blockbuster movies, and, and for that. But he needed to do something different.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Wow. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:00

      the movie.

   2. MKMark Kerr15:00

      Wow.

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:01

      Yeah. He fought... Big Daddy Goodrich, and Big Daddy was wearing the gi. Like...

   4. MKMark Kerr15:04

      Wow.

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:05

      Yeah. Remember? I mean, not only that-

   6. MKMark Kerr15:07

      Yeah. Oh, my God, yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:07

      ... but it was a-

   8. MKMark Kerr15:07

      Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:08

      Big Daddy Goodrich is a legend.

   10. MKMark Kerr15:10

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:10

       And like, how do you leave him out when that was his f- only MMA fight?

   12. MKMark Kerr15:15

       Fight.

   13. JRJoe Rogan15:15

       Like, why did you change the guy he fought? That doesn't even make any sense.

   14. MKMark Kerr15:19

       No.

   15. JRJoe Rogan15:19

       But they just did Hollywood shenanigans.

   16. MKMark Kerr15:21

       Yo, uh, i- so, you know, that was a huge part from the beginning of this when, when DJ and I, DJ and I talked back in 2019, is just the, like, the trust factor.

   17. JRJoe Rogan15:33

       You guys started talking about this in 2019?

   18. MKMark Kerr15:35

       Yeah, in 2019, yeah.

   19. JRJoe Rogan15:35

       Wow.

   20. MKMark Kerr15:36

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan15:36

       Six fucking years.

   22. MKMark Kerr15:37

       Yeah. Yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan15:38

       Wow.

   24. MKMark Kerr15:39

       Here's what's crazy. So, so he says, "Hey, you know, we're gonna move forward with this." And, and m- I, so for me, I hadn't even thought about any of this. Like, it being a movie, it, he wants to play me in a movie, and he goes, "I'm gonna make the announcement, Madison Square Garden at the BMF Belt." He goes, this, we had this beautiful conversation, and it was just like this, "Do you trust me?" And it was like, "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

   25. JRJoe Rogan16:09

       He's a fucking great dude.

   26. MKMark Kerr16:10

       Oh, my God, solid, he's... By the way, he says, "Say hi." He left me a great message on the way over here. (laughs) I was listening to him, man. He's just, he's, he's a rare human being.

   27. JRJoe Rogan16:19

       He is. I'm gonna, I'm gonna call him after this just to tell him what a fucking amazing job he did, 'cause I, well, I wanted to watch it right before I saw you.

   28. MKMark Kerr16:27

       Okay.

   29. JRJoe Rogan16:27

       So I watched it today, and I was like, "God damn, this is a good movie, man." And I just, I was just blown away by how well he captured the chaos of the Pride organization, all the, the weirdness of the contract negotiations, everything.

   30. MKMark Kerr16:43

       Off, uh, so, so Benny from the beginning said, "The only way we're gonna be able to do this is have that authenticity," to the point where I sent them watches, rings, necklaces, posters, everything I could find picture-wise, everything, to their props and production.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Yeah. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      with him and what happens with a lot of guys is like, the pressure of life sometimes, and what makes you a great fighter in the first place, there's a certain wildness.

   2. MKMark Kerr30:09

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan30:10

      And with a guy-

   4. MKMark Kerr30:10

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan30:10

      ... like Jon, that wildness, it's like it's hard to keep on a leash.

   6. MKMark Kerr30:14

      Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know how that feels.

   7. JRJoe Rogan30:17

      Yeah, I'm sure you do. (laughs)

   8. MKMark Kerr30:18

      (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan30:19

      Well, I remember, I had no idea, and I don't think anybody had any idea until The Smashing Machine documentary came out.

   10. MKMark Kerr30:26

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan30:26

       And when that documentary came out, everybody was like, "Holy shit."

   12. MKMark Kerr30:30

       "Holy shit."

   13. JRJoe Rogan30:30

       First of all-... kudos to you for allowing people to see you-

   14. MKMark Kerr30:36

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan30:36

       ... like that.

   16. MKMark Kerr30:36

       Thank you.

   17. JRJoe Rogan30:37

       Raw, completely honest about all of the addiction problems, all, everything. And n- no one would have expected it. When they saw you, they just saw this fucking d- dominant destroyer. This guy was, like, smashing everybody, and you just thought, "Oh, well that guy is just a, he's just a machine, and s- just so mentally strong, and he just gets out there and gets it done." And then you allowed them to show you, where in the, the making of the documentary, it was, what they were essentially trying to capture was you at your prime.

   18. MKMark Kerr31:09

       Prime, yeah.

   19. JRJoe Rogan31:10

       And what they caught you, was you where your life was falling apart, just fortuitously.

   20. MKMark Kerr31:15

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan31:15

       It was just-

   22. MKMark Kerr31:16

       Oh my God.

   23. JRJoe Rogan31:16

       ... kind of random luck they caught you at that time.

   24. MKMark Kerr31:19

       So, (sighs) so when, uh, John Greenhall, who's a producer, uh, I went to Syracuse with him. I was, we were on the wrestling team together. He's the one that called me. He said, "Hey," um, "I wanna do a documentary." At that point, my vision of what it was, was, uh, little Best Buy camera, where the, like, little flip screen and they show up and they go, "Okay, we're filming a documentary."

   25. JRJoe Rogan31:43

       Right. (laughs)

   26. MKMark Kerr31:43

       "Hang on, I gotta change tape," you know? And they show up in Japan for my Woltanshin fight with two 10,000, 15,000, whatever they were, digital Sony cameras, a boom mic, and, like, five people. I'm like, "Oh, fuck. You're, you're, like, you're really gonna make a, like, you're gonna make a documentary." And so he was f- right from the get-go, John could see, John could see what was the contrast, like, me as a fighter and me as a person. That contrast.

   27. JRJoe Rogan32:16

       Mm-hmm.

   28. MKMark Kerr32:17

       Um, and so that's what he was after, is, is, like, to s- to really show this contrast and, like, you can do this for a living and be this kind, sensitive, you know, person on the other side of that.

   29. JRJoe Rogan32:25

       But that was what was weird about you. It was a very weird contrast-

   30. MKMark Kerr32:28

       Yeah.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Oh, wow. …

   1. MKMark Kerr45:00

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:00

      Oh, wow.

   3. MKMark Kerr45:00

      Where I could take food in. It's not like I could sit and eat all day.

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:04

      And that's when the nerves start kicking in-

   5. MKMark Kerr45:05

      Yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:05

      ... and you just start-

   7. MKMark Kerr45:06

      It just starts kicking in like my, like, like, literally. And it's controlled focus, right?

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:10

      Mm-hmm.

   9. MKMark Kerr45:10

      'Cause it's like, I can't have all my nerves running everywhere, but it's controlled focus. But that controlled focus, my body goes, "I don't need digestion. Fuck, I'm-"

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:18

       Right.

   11. MKMark Kerr45:18

       "... about to fight. What the fuck do I need to digest food for?"

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:21

       Right, right, right.

   13. MKMark Kerr45:22

       You know?

   14. JRJoe Rogan45:22

       Yeah, a lot of guys have made those mista- Uh, Aljamain Sterling said he made that mistake when he first fought Petr Yan. He just, he didn't eat. Just couldn't eat.

   15. MKMark Kerr45:29

       It's brutal. So th- so that last scene against Fujita is an, is w- 100% hypoglycemic, crash-

   16. JRJoe Rogan45:37

       Hmm.

   17. MKMark Kerr45:37

       ... laying there, can't move my body. And if you watch the documentary (laughs) , what I'm saying on the way back is, "I need sugar, I need sugar, I need sugar."

   18. JRJoe Rogan45:44

       Hmm.

   19. MKMark Kerr45:45

       I, I, that's all I could think about was like, "I need sugar, I need sugar, I need sugar." 'Cause my blood sugar levels had just crashed to this like, "I can't fucking move."

   20. JRJoe Rogan45:53

       Jeez. It's, uh, so crazy too, the watch the evolution of the training methods from back then, from '97, to like, what we're seeing today.

   21. MKMark Kerr46:02

       Yeah. Oh, incredible.

   22. JRJoe Rogan46:04

       It i- it is really extraordinary because there's not a real- another sport that has gone through that much of a metamorphosis. Not-

   23. MKMark Kerr46:10

       Hmm.

   24. JRJoe Rogan46:10

       Not even close really.

   25. MKMark Kerr46:11

       In that timeframe.

   26. JRJoe Rogan46:12

       Mm-hmm.

   27. MKMark Kerr46:13

       'Cause it's a short-

   28. JRJoe Rogan46:13

       Yeah.

   29. MKMark Kerr46:13

       It's a short time frame-

   30. JRJoe Rogan46:14

       Right.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:11:25

   Hmm. …

   1. MKMark Kerr1:00:00

      at the time said, "Hey, listen, uh, they're up at Big Bear having a training camp." I'm like, "Okay, let's go up." So get in my truck, drive up. It starts snowing. It was like February. They were gonna do their first big push with Tito, right?

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:12

      Hmm.

   3. MKMark Kerr1:00:13

      And, uh, I get hit by a drunk driver at 11:00 AM in the morning-

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:16

      Oh my God.

   5. MKMark Kerr1:00:17

      ... on the way up. So, uh, my attorney was in the car with us. He, I, he... Literally, the tow truck takes us up to the top of the hill. Um, I still get to talk to Dana, I still get to talk to Frank and Lorenzo, and I'm like, "Yeah, I got hit by a drunk driver." He's like, "Well, we're going to Beverly Hills Wheelchair tomorrow. Why don't you just jump in the limo with us, and we'll take you down?" I'm like, "Okay." So I get, like, this three-hour (laughs) drive down the mountain with Frank and Lorenzo, the new owners of the UFC.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:44

      Wow.

   7. MKMark Kerr1:00:45

      And we're just sitting there talking. They're, they're like, "Hey, you know, how is it working in Japan?" They knew everything about me.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:00:50

      Hmm.

   9. MKMark Kerr1:00:50

      "How is it working in Japan? How did they do this? How did they do that?" And it was just this really cool conversation, really cool experience to be able to go, "Okay, maybe this has landed in the right spot."

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:01:01

       Oh, they were the right guys.They were the right guys, because they were ... Like, Frank and Lorenzo are rabid fans.

   11. MKMark Kerr1:01:08

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:01:08

       Like, rabid.

   13. MKMark Kerr1:01:09

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:01:09

       And they would train and they would beat the fuck out of each other.

   15. MKMark Kerr1:01:12

       Yeah. Yeah. (laughs)

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:01:12

       And that's where they met Frank. Frank, they brought Frank in to help them, to what, they've kind of erased Frank. So, Frank Shamrock, in my opinion, is one of the all-time greats, and also one of the most important in terms of the metamorphosis-

   17. MKMark Kerr1:01:28

       I agree.

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:01:28

       ... in terms of the evolution of the sport.

   19. MKMark Kerr1:01:30

       I agree.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:01:30

       Because Frank was the first guy with elite cardio that could do everything. He could submit you off his back, like remember when he fought Kevin Jackson?

   21. MKMark Kerr1:01:38

       Yep, yep, yep, yep.

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:01:38

       Caught him in an arm bar, bang!

   23. MKMark Kerr1:01:40

       Yup, yup.

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:01:40

       First round, right off his-

   25. MKMark Kerr1:01:40

       Yup.

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:01:40

       He was elite everywhere and his cardio was off the charts. When he fought Tito Ortiz, Tito was much bigger than him.

   27. MKMark Kerr1:01:48

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:01:48

       Not just a little bit bigger than him.

   29. MKMark Kerr1:01:50

       Yeah. Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:01:50

       Frank's not a big framed guy.

Episode duration: 3:03:06