Thursday, April 09, 2009

Brett Rogers: I'm in This to Hurt, to Smash, to Win

Originally posted on mma.fanhouse.com

Ten months ago, Brett "The Grim" Rogers was riding high. He had just knocked out another opponent to improve to 8-0 in his mixed martial arts career, a win that carried special significance because it was the first MMA fight ever carried live on network television.

But it hasn't been easy for Rogers since then. His promotion, EliteXC, folded, leaving him without a job. He went from being a professional athlete fighting in front of millions to working at Sam's Club, and he wondered if his MMA career would ever resume.

On Saturday it finally will, as Rogers will fight Ron "Abongo" Humphrey for Strikeforce on Showtime. I interviewed Rogers this week about his time off, his thoughts on the fight and his future plans. The full interview is below.

Michael David Smith: You won the first MMA fight ever to be carried live on network TV. How significant do you think that is?
Brett Rogers: First and foremost, it was the most nervous I ever was in my life. While I was waiting around for the undercard to get over, I was so nervous. But I thought of it as an opportunity to go out there and put on a show, and that's what I did.

At the same time, that fight was in May of 2008. If I had told you then that you weren't going to fight again until April of 2009, I imagine you would have been disappointed.
Yeah, I would have been pretty disappointed. It's been a long time. It's been tough, but I knew this wasn't something I could give up on. It's something I love to do. Fighting is fun, and I'm working hard on being more than just a fighter, developing all my MMA skills. I think I'll show that this weekend.

You're a big puncher, and you've used punches to win every fight. Do you also have a ground game?
Yes. Most of the time I was off I was working on my jiu jitsu. In fact, I kind of put the stand-up game behind me so much that I was worried that I might have lost something in my timing on the stand-up. My ground game is very good, it's just that nobody has pushed me to use it. But I'm working at a gym where my coaches are pushing me to improve my ground game. It's coming together.

Click here to read the entire article at MMA.fanhouse.com

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