Patrick Reusse: East Side fighter is main MMA attraction

St. Paul's Brett Rogers will face Fedor Emilianenko in a much-hyped contest when mixed martial arts get another try on prime-time TV.

Mike Reilly set up a gym in the garage at his Bloomington home and was training mixed martial arts fighters. A few years back, a large young man unfamiliar to Reilly came walking up his driveway.

"I said to myself, 'I hope I don't owe this guy money,' " Reilly said.

The visitor was Brett Rogers from St. Paul's East Side. Rogers had played basketball at St. Paul Harding and then Riverland Community College in Austin. He had tried amateur boxing.

"It was obvious after junior college that basketball wasn't going to get me anywhere," Rogers said. "And boxing didn't really do it for me. I still had the competitive desire to do something in athletics."

Rogers had watched MMA fights with his friends for several years. He also had taken a tae kwon do class in junior college and continued to work on those skills.

"I wanted to try fighting," Rogers said. "Somebody told me, 'There's a trainer in Bloomington who could help you.' "

And that's how Brett Rogers, 6-5 and over 250 pounds, came to be in Reilly's driveway early one evening.

"He was a physical specimen," Reilly said. "He was a quiet guy, but you could tell he was serious about this. So, he went to work, and five years later, he's going to be on national television against the fighter most people consider the best heavyweight in the world."

CBS had a failed experiment with putting on prime-time fights last year through Elite XC. That outfit went out of business when its star, Kimbo Slice, was knocked out in 14 seconds last October.

Thirteen months later, on Nov. 7, fighting will be back on CBS with a promotional organization called Strikeforce. The main event is St. Paul's Rogers, 28 years old and 10-0, against Fedor Emelianenko, a 33-year-old Ukranian with 31 fights (and 30 victories).

"I've never seen him fight in person ... only watched his last few fights on tape," Rogers said. "He's 6 foot and about 230. If he comes in at 240, like some people think he might, he'll have a little gut on him."

The CBS cameras and the crowd at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Ill., will provide quite a contrast to Rogers' debut three years ago. On July 30, 2006, Rogers knocked out Stan Strong at the T Bar saloon in Ellsworth, Wis.

"It was definitely a country fight," Reilly said.

Rogers was familiar with humble surroundings. He spent the first 12 years of his life in Chicago's inner city, including a period in the Cabrini Green projects.

"My grandmother said, 'This is getting a little too crazy,' and we moved to Minnesota," Rogers said.

Mary Rogers and her grandson settled on the East Side. A year later, Brett's mother and two siblings followed them to St. Paul.

"Brett was tough inside for us in basketball," said Jerry Keenan, Harding's athletic director. "He played four years for us. He's a good kid, but that sport he's in now ... I can hardly stand to watch it."

Rogers is married to Tinana and they have three young children. With a family started, Brett needed to find jobs when he came back home after junior college. He had a half-dozen jobs before finding work in the tire service at Sam's Club.

Rogers was a part-time fighter until 2008, when he signed a contract with Elite XC. He was matched against Jon Murphy on the first CBS card on May 31, 2008.

The buildup was for Kimbo Slice, an alleged king of street fights. Rogers knocked out Murphy in 61 seconds. Slice's third-round victory over James Thompson was widely ridiculed for its dullness.

Rogers made news in the media gathering after the card. He was asked about Slice's fight and -- with Kimbo sitting there -- said, "It was garbage."

The East Sider has been equally sure of himself in the buildup for Emilianenko, even though on Saturday, two weeks before the fight, he was a 4-1 underdog in Las Vegas sports books.

"The way I see it, he's not going to want to stand with me," Rogers said of Emilianenko. "He's going to want to take me down and play a little ground and pound game because he knows damn well my hands are ferocious. He's not going to be able to handle my power."

Patrick Reusse can be heard 5:30-9 a.m. weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP. • preusse@startribune.com

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