RSS
Home
Brett Rogers out front in promoting Strikeforce event
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
With the biggest fight of his MMA career less than a week away, Strikeforce heavyweight Brett Rogers has been doing his part to generate interest in his upcoming fight with Fedor Emilianenko. With the event happening in Chicago, where he spent the early part of his life, Rogers has done a good job of playing up the local angle as well as garnering interest around the fight world. Now all he has to do is figure out a way to get his opponent to play along as well.
Seeing Rogers sitting in one of the luxury boxes during the Bears-Browns football game Sunday in Chicago, he looked like a guy on top of the world. Not far removed from changing tires at Sam’s Club, Rogers is now a guest of honor at Soldier Field, being interviewed by the big city newspapers, and preparing to fight the man widely considered the best MMA fighter in the world. Not bad for a kid from Cabrini Green.
While the exposure he’s enjoying in the weeks leading up to the fight has got to make him feel good, the reward for victory would dwarf this experience. If he were to be able to knock out “The Last Emperor” (and that is the only way he can beat Fedor), he would have a legitimate claim as one of the top heavyweight MMA fighters in the world. He would become the guy fans would be clamoring to see step in against Brock Lesnar, even though they don’t fight in the same organization.
Rogers is a guy that fans are beginning to latch onto. He was presented a great opportunity with a fight against Andrei Arlovski and he capitalized, knocking him out in spectacular fashion. The result was not Rogers becoming a celebrity hound and garnering all sorts of press about him talking about what a bad man he is. Instead he has talked about his humble upbringing and how he will surprise people who have never seen him fight before.
If he can pull out a victory Saturday night, Strikeforce may find they will have an easier time marketing Rogers to the masses than they do Fedor. Rogers lives in the US, so he will be much more accessible to the media, where as Fedor will be heading back to Russia ten minutes after the fight ends. The only thing fans will hear from Fedor is the occasional interview in Russian from either his home or an M-1 Global event from somewhere in Europe.
Strikeforce can only promote the “mystery” of Fedor so long before fans want to actually get to know something about him. In Rogers, they may have found a guy that can give fans what they want to see in the cage, as well as what they want to see and hear from a champion outside of it.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
