Brett Rogers' Manager Pleasantly Surprised by CBS Announcement

By Ariel Helwani - Video Reporter and Writer

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You can add Brett Rogers' trainer and manager, Mike Reilly, to the list of people who were surprised to hear that Rogers' upcoming fight against Fedor Emelianenko would air live on CBS.

"I was actually surprised." Reilly told FanHouse on Thursday. "I thought we would end up fighting Fedor on CBS, but I thought, like everybody else, that the first CBS show was going to be in the first quarter of 2010, so I kind of thought we were going to fight somebody else between now and then, but doing it first and on CBS is great.

"One of the reasons we signed on with Strikeforce is because CBS was a possibility. And what I've found is working with Strikeforce, dude, anything's possible. I guess that's what makes it fun and exciting. There's something new all the time and another exciting opportunity."

The event will air live on CBS on Nov. 14. No other fights have been announced for the card but Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told FanHouse on Thursday that Gegard Mousasi, Jason "Mayhem" Miller and Cris "Cyborg" Santos will all be fighting on the telecast.

Rogers is no stranger to fighting on CBS. He defeated Jon Murphy in the first fight on the first live MMA telecast on CBS and network television history in May 2008. And while this upcoming fight against Emelianenko is a lot more important, Reilly isn't looking at it that way.

"Everybody does talk about this as a life changing fight, I mean, to be honest, the first fight on CBS was a life changing fight and the fight against Andrei Arlovski was a life changing fight. So this is just another big life changing event."

Reilly said that he has recently brought in veteran Travis Wiuff to help Rogers train for this fight and that "The Grim" is already in the midst of his training camp. Like the rest of the MMA world, though, he has no idea where the event will take place, but is quick to point out that he doesn't care.

"We've heard a couple different locations, but the truth is, I don't ask where. For us, wherever we go it will be great. It never really matters to us where the fight is, so we never ask. They just tell us the date and we tell them how to spell the name on the airline ticket, show up to the airport and wherever we go that's where we go."

Read More: brettrogers, fedoremelianenko, mikereilly, traviswiuff, mma fighting exclusive, Brett Rogers (MMA), Fedor Emelianenko (MMA), Mike Reilly (MMA), Travis Wiuff (MMA)

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