Whatever Happened to The Smashing Machine’s Mark Kerr and Dawn Staples? Inside Their Lives Today
Dwayne Johnson takes on MMA icon Mark Kerr alongside Emily Blunt as Dawn Staples in The Smashing Machine, a bruising saga of glory, addiction, and a volatile love story hitting theaters October 3, 2025. So where are the real Kerr and Staples now?
Heads up for fight fans and movie people: Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are teaming for 'The Smashing Machine,' a drama about MMA pioneer Mark Kerr and his on-and-off, very real-life messiness with addiction and love. It opens October 3, 2025. And because the first question after a based-on-a-true-story movie is always 'So where are they now?', here is where Mark Kerr and Dawn Staples actually landed.
Mark Kerr today
Kerr was born December 21, 1968, in Toledo, Ohio. He started as a wrestler, then jumped into MMA in 1997 and made his debut against UFC veteran Paul Varelans. From there, he turned into a force: a two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion back in the wild tournament-era days, and a fixture in PRIDE FC. The nickname 'The Smashing Machine' wasn’t subtle, but it fit.
He retired from fighting in 2009 and took a job at a Toyota dealership, where he worked until 2015. A few years later, in 2019, he shared that he had been dealing with peripheral neuropathy since 2016 and set up a GoFundMe to help cover treatment costs.
More recently, he has been out front promoting 'The Smashing Machine,' which is already drawing early Oscar chatter. If the title rings a bell, it’s because the film takes its cue from the 2002 HBO documentary about Kerr — the one that captured both his rapid rise and the addiction battle that came with it.
Dawn Staples today
Staples studied at Phoenix College, modeled, and later moved into real estate investing. She and Kerr married in 2000, but the realities of his dangerous career took a toll; they split in 2015. These days, she works as an interior decorator and runs Final Touches by Design, a studio based in Phoenix. She and Kerr share a son, Bryce, who played high school football.
The quick timeline
- 1968: Mark Kerr is born in Toledo, Ohio.
- 1997: Leaves wrestling for MMA; debuts against Paul Varelans.
- Late 1990s: Becomes a two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion and fights in PRIDE FC.
- 2000: Marries Dawn Staples (a former Playboy model).
- 2009: Retires from MMA.
- 2009–2015: Works at a Toyota dealership.
- 2015: Kerr and Staples end their marriage.
- 2016: Onset of peripheral neuropathy (Kerr publicly reveals it in 2019 and launches a GoFundMe for treatment).
- Now: Kerr is helping promote 'The Smashing Machine' (inspired by the 2002 HBO doc), while Staples runs her Phoenix interior design studio, Final Touches by Design; their son Bryce played high school football.
- October 3, 2025: 'The Smashing Machine' hits theaters, with Dwayne Johnson as Kerr and Emily Blunt as Staples.
Inside baseball note: those 'UFC tournament champion' days were a very different era from today’s weight-class title belts. Kerr thrived in that format, which is part of why his rise — and the crash that followed — made such a raw, compelling story the first time around, and why this new film is getting so much attention now.