Rogers Leaves Home for Training

Anyone who doubts Brett Rogers’ dedication to his burgeoning art need only look at where he’s laid his head to rest for the last six weeks.

Six weeks ago, Rogers packed his bags, kissed his wife and three young children in St. Paul, Minn., goodbye, and hit the open road in preparation for his title bout against heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem at Strikeforce “Heavy Artillery” this Saturday at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo.

The 29-year-old former tire repairman’s travels have taken him to Southern California, where he enlisted hard-nosed wrestler Antonio McKee and his Body Shop team in Lakewood, Calif. Rogers also trained at Millennia MMA in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., which houses multiple Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts, and finished his studies at the Xtreme Couture and Throwdown gyms in Las Vegas.

You can say Rogers has been on a mission.

“I’m kind of all over the place trying to pick and choose the best of the best and try to figure out a strategy. I love my training in Minnesota, but I feel I’m best when I’m out of town, new personalities, new bodies, they don’t know about me, I don’t know about them,” said Rogers. “There’s less distractions. Out here, I just have to think about three things: wake up, work out, and whup ass.”

Rogers has come a long way since fans were first introduced to his power-punching at EliteXC “Primetime” in May 2008, the first MMA event ever aired on network television. Rogers knocked out Jon Murphy in just over a minute during the CBS telecast’s opening bout -- his 7th straight win in a career that had only begun two years earlier. In November, Rogers fought the world’s No. 1 heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, also on CBS. The stoic Russian stopped Rogers in the second round, though Roger’s performance garnered him positive reviews.

Still, it’s Rogers’ latest moves that speak volumes about him. Rather than retreat to the safety of what he knows, Rogers left home with a list of areas to improve on. In a word, Rogers came back hungry.

“That loss kind of helped me to be myself and see things that I was doing wrong. Before the Fedor fight, I couldn’t really judge off things that I was doing wrong,” said Rogers. “I’m definitely going to be a lot more aware in this fight…keeping myself out of bad situations.”

Conditioning has been a focus for the quiet, 6-foot-4 behemoth. Rogers doesn’t just want to be able to go the distance with Overeem if pushed to, he aims to re-invent what it means to be a heavyweight.

“From here on out, I’m just going to stay on hard conditioning,” said Rogers. “People expect (heavyweights) to have just power and that’s it, so I want to change the script on that so we can kind of move around like light heavyweights too.”

Rogers has also fielded resistance from critics, who have asked why Strikeforce rewarded his November loss to Emelianenko with an immediate title shot.

“People say that I don’t deserve this and I’m feeling a lot of pressure on just doing more, anything, to prove (that I do),” said Rogers.

Overeem, who has packed on some 40 odd pounds since his days at light heavyweight, has been unstoppable on the Japanese circuit. The Dutch striker has been fed a steady diet of challengers, some worthy and some not. But a confident Overeem has finished nearly all of them with his arsenal of brutal punches and knees.

“I’ve got guys in the gym that act kind of ‘kangorooish,’ you know? Overeem’s a really choppy (fighter) and all you have to do is kind of calm that person out, take him where he doesn’t like to be on his back,” said Rogers.

Rogers is banking that his recent pilgrimage, away from the people and possessions he loves the most, will pay in dividends on Saturday.

“I’ve definitely stepped up the game. Every fight I always step up the game somehow, some way,” said Rogers. “I don’t like every fight to look the same.”