Josh Connor
As Brian “The Professional Predator” Rogers (11-8) makes his walkout to the Bellator 147 cage December 4th in San Jose, California he will do so with a renewed sense of purpose. Much like the ten Bellator fights proceeding this contest, Rogers will still carry the same fire and determination inside of him. Yet, in this contest against opponent Virgil "Rez Dog" Zwicker (14-4-1), he believes he will also carry improved speed, power, and durability with him into the cage as well. You see, Rogers is attempting to reinvigorate his professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) career, one he feels has been hindered in the past by excessive weight cuts to compete in Bellator's middleweight division (185 lb. limit). As Rogers moves up in weight and makes his light heavyweight debut (205 lb. limit), he will be authorized an additional twenty pounds at weigh-ins. It’s a move Rogers hopes will spark the beginning of a career resurgence and subsequent win streak which will propel him on a deep run inside his new Bellator light heavyweight home: "It was tough when I would get up to 230 [pounds] and cut down to 185 [pounds] in eight weeks. When I was younger, I was able to do it in the beginning of my career. After the Beltran fight, we decided that it would benefit me to move up in weight. I have never been out strength’ed in a fight. I have never been out quick’ed or anything like that so I expect my speed to go up. I think my power and durability will be much much better as well at 205 [pounds]." "My conditioning feels good. My energy feels better in a sense that I don’t do so much a.m. cardio to get my weight down because I am not going to 185. I haven’t had to focus on that so much. I have been able to put energy into my skill training and things like that which has been nice."
For Rogers, the drive to become a professional MMA fighter was rooted in childhood dreams of wanting to become a professional athlete. As a youth growing up, Rogers participated in karate before ultimately moving into scholastic sports where he excelled in track, on the wrestling mat, and shined most brightly on the football field. Rogers football prowess earned him a college scholarship to Walsh University where he would finish his collegiate career 2nd all time in career tackles. Despite achieving many football accolades on the gridiron at Walsh University, Rogers never quite attaining his end goal of becoming a professional athlete:
"That was always kind of my thing; I always wanted to be a professional athlete and wanted to keep doing something after my playing career had wrapped up in college. When you are a kid, you think you are going to go to the NFL and obviously that just wasn’t in the cards for me. So, I wanted another shot at being a professional athlete. It just kind of began doing some jiu jitsu and then getting into striking as well, and I feel like I had a pretty good knack for that. I had a couple amateur fights in ’06 and ’07 and turned pro on the short lived BET reality show “The Iron Ring” where I made my debut. [I] had a bit of a rough start as a pro at 1-2 and then fortunately I won 6 or 7 in a row before Bellator signed me in 2011."
For Rogers, the mindset he learned on football field sticks with him to this day. At Bellator 147, he looks to utilize it to overcome a recent skid of losses and get his MMA career back on the winning track:
"You know, you have to live and learn from it. You can’t dwell on it. I’m also a football guy who played linebacker but you have to have a cornerback mentality. You have to have a short memory. If you get burnt or you get toasted, you have to get right back in there ready to play again on the next play. You can’t dwell on it too much. You have to turn the page and go on to the next one. Even if you are successful, you can’t rest on past accomplishments. You can’t rest on past setbacks. Use them as motivation. You gotta keep moving." Heading into this main even card on Spike TV, Rogers knows he is in for a difficult challenge in opponent Virgil “Rez dog” Zwicker (14-4-1), but he also knows it’s the kind of victory that would make a statement to the Bellator brass: "[Zwicker] is a hard guy to put away. Super durable and tough. He is a guy who likes to brawl, and I like brawling too. That very well could happen, but its a little bit of Russian Roulette and everyone kind of likes their chances in that type of gun fight. I think there is a reason this fight got matched and a reason it is on the main card as well.
Sporting a Master’s Degree in Sport Science from the University of Akron, Rogers stated his experience with Bellator traveling and doing appearances and promotional work made him fall in love with the business and marketing mindset. Rogers clearly has a strong passion for business and his knowledge of Mixed Martial Arts is put to good use daily in his current position at an internet marketing agency named 97 Display that creates Martial Arts websites & Fitness websites for businesses to help them grow their student & member counts.
"It’s great. I talk with people every day who have the same passions as I do. If its an MMA business, they are either surprised they are talking to me or they know me in MMA and they ask me ‘Oh, is this Brett Rogers from Bellator?’ It’s cool; it’s interesting. I get a lot of opportunity to travel and see a lot of different people." While many fighters are unclear what life after fighting for them will entail, Rogers already seems to have a well thought out plan for what will be next for him: "My manager is actually my good friend Jim Walter who has a finance consulting management background; I am the only guy he manages. He travels around the world, and does a lot of things in business. That’s kind of more my mindset and what I would like to do post-fighting. I’d rather be working in business doing something else international or honestly just getting back into college athletics and working with athletes in some capacity." As for Rogers’ fight moniker “The Professional Predator”, he explains the origin of his passion for menswear: "As I started to travel with Bellator, I got into more menswear fashion as opposed to hip hop street style clothing. I started wearing suits. I’ve got a friend and sponsor David Cotugno Executive Tailors that people see on my banner. Mostly its fabric from Italy or the UK; he hand stitches a lot of my stuff. I kind of got into that . My friends make fun of me because I’m a big scarf guy. They always mess with me about that. I wear a sport coat with jeans type of swag or vibe. I love hip hop clothing and things like that and different street brands. To put a title of label on it is kind of tough. When you have a vibe and you have a swag, you just kind of know what you can wear and what you can’t. I’ll wear stuff and my friends will be like ‘I could never wear’ that but I’m like dude because in your head you think you can’t wear it. I kind of like menswear in general."
With a win at Bellator 147, Rogers looks to gain light heavyweight momentum heading into 2016 and make his case for a spot on one of the most anticipated cards of the year in Houston at Bellator 149: Ken Shamrock-Royce Gracie & Kimbo Slice-Dada 5000. As for Rogers' take on that card, he had the following to say:
"[Dada 5000’s] got a puncher’s chance. It’s not like Kimbo’s going to pull guard and show him an X guard or some high level jiu jitsu. They are going to plant their feet and box. Kimbo might throw him off and take him down a little bit. I think its a pride thing with him. [Kimbo] is going to want to stand up and bang. " "The fight is going to do numbers. People forget guys like George Masvidal were fighting in the street culture and the Kimbo fights and stuff like that. People ask me still about Kimbo Slice and like what is happening to him. [Kimbo] is still relevant and still in people’s minds. And they are relevant as I am a big hip hop fan and those dudes are still relevant and their names still get dropped in hip hop. They’re are going to be people who know about them because of Southern hip hop street culture that are going to come to this fight to see them. They are not necessarily MMA fans but they know of them from viral videos and hip hop culture. You are a fool if you don’t want to be on that card. I want people to come and see Kimbo and Royce and Ken and Dada5000 and see fight of the night with that Brian Rogers guy."
Rogers on sponsors:
"I’ve never had a giant company sponsor me. I’ve never had anything like Underarmor, Reebok, or Nike or something like that. I’ve always had mid-sized companies whether they are Northeastern Ohio companies or other people that kind of get behind me. I appreciate that. I’m pretty good just because of my network nationally. I’m pretty good about connecting the dots and helping people and bringing a return back to that business besides just branding and exposure. I’ve looked at sponsorship as most of my people have generally cared about me. They want their product on TV, and they want it represented correctly by a professional. They sponsor me because they enjoy my carefree personality and believe in me and I have a platform through Bellator MMA." Rogers on the UFC-Reebok Deal: "I get it from a branding stand point. UFC wants to be like the NFL and whatever else and have uniforms, and I get that from a branding standpoint. People don’t even realize it, Bellator is getting a bigger and bigger name now. Back in the day when I first started my career, and I would call to get sponsorships from people dumping thousands into the UFC my manager would get laughed off the phone because they thought only the UFC had the interest. Now, Bellator is pulling better ratings and these same companies can’t even be seen inside the UFC. That’s why you are seeing Bad Boy, Venum, Dethrone, and things like that [in Bellator]."
Best of luck Brian, and thank you for your time. Thank you also to Bellator’s CJ Tuttle.
Brian would like to thank the following: 97 Display, FutureLegend, Crow’s Auto Body in Canton, Factory X, Ohio Kids Capes of Courage (see below), Revgear University, Lanas Egg Whites, Spider Tech, Jacob Coker, & Trabank Reality. |
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