Mark Kerr is one of the great champions of a violent and dangerous sport -- "no holds barred fighting" or "mixed martial arts fighting," in which challengers of any fighting sport (boxing, wrestling, kickboxing, karate, and so on) may challenge one another, without observing the official rules of either sport. In "no holds barred" fighting, the two competitors attempt to reduce one another to a bloody pulp, and Kerr is one of the best men in the game. But behind his violent exterior is an intelligent man who has made a decision to pursue a career in a wildly dangerous profession. The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Mark Kerr is a documentary which looks at Kerr's life in and out of the ring, as he attempts to deal with his demons and hold his personal life together while traveling the world and fighting some of the world's most formidable foes. The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Mark Kerr was originally produced for the premium cable network HBO, where it first aired in 2003.