‘The Smashing Machine’ talks PRIDE FC and the Yakuza. The Tokyo Dome, house to a number of the loudest crowds and wildest nights on the earth of blended martial arts, used to buzz with extra than simply fight-night jitters. Within the early 2000s, PRIDE FC was at its peak, with worldwide stars, monumental showdowns, and – in the event you requested anybody within the know – a bit undercurrent of organized crime.
PRIDE FC and The Yakuza From The Smashing Machine
PRIDE FC, operating from 1997 to 2007, wasn’t simply Japan’s reply to the UFC – It was greater. It was a spectacle, a stage for unforgettable bouts, and, in response to persistent whispers, a magnet for the Yakuza, the nation’s storied organized crime syndicates. For years, the Yakuza’s supposed affect was the worst-kept secret within the enterprise. Fighters, journalists, and followers traded tales: mysterious males backstage, cash flowing in odd instructions, and an iron curtain separating the star athletes from the less-photographed energy brokers within the shadows.
Mark Kerr, the topic of the acclaimed documentary “The Smashing Machine” and a fighter who lived by means of PRIDE’s wild heyday, reduce straight to the purpose in a latest interview. “Yakuza rumors… A whole lot of that was form of stored away. It actually was. You’ll stroll by means of the corridors behind, say, the Tokyo Dome and also you had one room that was a bunch of Japanese guys smoking and also you’d stroll previous it, there’d be a man standing on the door… they didn’t go in entrance of the cameras, they didn’t exit within the crowd, however they have been there on the venue. You knew they have been there on the venue. Proper?”
For athletes like Kerr, the unwritten rule was clear: keep on with enterprise, keep in the correct hallways, and don’t get too curious in regards to the folks who didn’t trouble with combat tickets or media passes. “I had a handler that made certain I didn’t get close to Mr. Ishihaka, there’s no footage, no nothing.” If the Yakuza’s biggest trick was disappearing from the general public eye, their second-greatest was preserving the fighters fastidiously out of their very own.
Now, about these names: “Mr. Ishihaka” was a ghost determine, usually confused within the press with Mr. Ishizaka, actual title Kim Dok Soo, a Korean-Japanese Yakuza underworld boss who, insiders say, briefly managed PRIDE after the suspicious demise of government Naoto Morishita in 2003. The group’s administration noticed common shake-ups, apparently mirroring an influence wrestle that performed out removed from the cage, involving not simply Ishizaka but additionally early backer Hiromichi Momose and Okay-1 founder Kazuyoshi Ishii. Ishii’s personal promotion, the kickboxing juggernaut Okay-1, confronted related rumors: unmarked doorways, fixer-led offers, and authorized bother over tax evasion.
Handlers made certain fighters like Kerr stored their distance. “As many instances as I’ve been to Japan, with all of the photographers there, no one ever took an image with me and Mr. Ishihaka… He was the primary president… The man I used to be related to was a Korean dude, he signed every thing Kim Dok and everybody in Japan referred to as him Mr. Ishihaka. Mr. Ishi owned K1… however you’d have handlers ensuring there have been no footage, no nothing.”
The rumors have been greater than locker room gossip. In 2006, when Japan’s weekly journal Shukan Gendai ran exposés linking PRIDE’s administration to organized crime, sponsors and TV broadcasters headed for the exits. Fuji TV, which broadcast PRIDE’s biggest nights, canceled its contract. Out of the blue, the monetary spine of the group snapped, and in 2007, PRIDE was offered to Zuffa, ending an period.
Okay-1 didn’t escape, both. Founder Kazuyoshi Ishii was arrested for tax evasion, fueling suspicions about backroom offers, secret funds to fighters, and contracts written by the sorts of fixers normally reserved for noir movies. The parade of “unofficial” bosses light out, however the cloud by no means fairly lifted.
None of this, the handlers would need you to know, ever formally occurred. Most admissions are between the strains and inside interviews like Kerr’s, or are woven by means of documentaries reminiscent of “The Smashing Machine.”
“The Smashing Machine” can also be a biographical movie, releasing on October 3, 2025, produced by A24, starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
