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Wednesday, Oct 03, 2012

Full Contact Fighter’s “The Daily Takedown:” Bleacher Report’s Dishonest Attack on Bellator, Brett Rogers, unfair

Brett Rogers Photo Credit: Esther Lin/Strikeforce

By Joshua Molina

Bleacher Report has another odd article today blasting Bellator for signing and promoting Brett Rogers’ fight this Friday on MTV 2.

Rogers was the one-time Strikeforce rising star who KO’d Andrei Arlovski and nearly upset Fedor Emelianenko.

But Rogers fell fast after he was crushed by Alistair Overeem, which led to a personal collapse. He was arrested for beating his wife, including knocking her teeth out.

The article criticizes Bellator for signing Rogers, saying the company and its CEO Bjorn Rebney should be “ashamed” for giving Rogers a job.

We all hate wife beaters, but the article sounds more like another pro-UFC, bash-anything -that’s -not-the-UFC nonsensical column.

First of all, Bellator is a business. They are trying to compete with the UFC and Strikeforce. Of course they are going to sign fighters with a name.

Second of all, Michael Vick killed dogs; Mike Tyson raped a woman; many athletes have been arrested for drunken driving, including Jon Jones, who, by the way, could have killed someone.

Eleven thousand people died in DUI accidents last year, according to the New York Times.

Stunningly, Bleacher Report cites Tyson, Vick as examples a bad athlete behavior, but let’s them off the hook because “those were athletes at the top of their respective sports” and that “winning solves many problems, for better or worse, and those men had the kind of athletic prowess that commands attention.”

So Bleacher Report is saying that it’s OK to kill and torture animals and sexually assault women if you are a top-level athlete, but not if you are struggling to make it the top.

News Flash to Bleacher Report: It’s never OK to do any of these things, whether you are an elite athlete or Brett Rogers.

To say otherwise is to be intellectually and morally dishonest.

MMA is a cutthroat sport full of tremendous athletes. But ultimately it’s a business. Rogers is a name and he does sell tickets. He’s big and a powerful puncher.

Rogers served his jail time for his colossal and cowardly act against his wife. Now he’s trying to turn his life around and better his fortunes.

He’s trying to pay the bills. He’s trying to take care of his children.

Rogers is no angel, but neither are a lot of athletes. The former Sam’s Club tire changer is still trying to pull himself out of the gutter.

It’s disingenuous to praise UFC for cutting him from Strikeforce and blast Bellator for signing him, Bellator is making a simple business decision.

Bellator is just trying to make money. And Rogers is just -again- trying to turn his life around.

posted by JoshuaM @ 3:17 pm
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