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While it aired on Showtime and will only be seen by a limited number of viewers compared to what they're trying to garner this coming Saturday night, Strikeforce's "Fight Camp 360: Fedor vs. Rogers" was an absolutely excellent look into the camps, and the lives, of both fighters.
Perhaps the number one thing to take away from this 30 minute program (which aired on Showtime last night and is available below on MMATorch.com), it is the humanity of the often mythical Fedor Emelianenko. The show sees Fedor in Stary Oskol, Russia, the town where Fedor was born and still lives, training with local children in a smaller, run down type of gym. He's shown with his wife and daughter, at his church, taking part in a banya, a traditional Russian sauna treatmant. It's an intimate and entertaining look into the world of the mysterious #1 heavyweight.
The show also does a great job with Brett Rogers, setting up his story from the mean streets in Chicago to the steady struggle to juggle multiple part time jobs and training while attempting to realize his goals in the sport. They visit both the Ambition MMA gym as well as the Sam's Club where Rogers worked in the Tire Center until this April.
The downside to the show was the fact that Strikeforce doesn't own any of the rights to footage of Fedor's past fights. They had to blur out the YouTube videos that Rogers and his trainer Mike Reailly were watching to compile their game plan for Saturday's fight, and it's very hard to simply tell people why Fedor is considered the best when you're not able to show them.
Still, it was a highly entertaining half hour look at both fighters, and for those that have seen it both fighters come off as very intriguing characters and there's a lot to look at coming into this bout between the two. While Rogers is the absolute underdog in this bout, and just about everyone has acknowledged that as fact, he is going to be a game opponent and the fight is going to be exciting. Check out the entire show and make sure to be here Saturday night as I run down the event live from the Sears Centre.
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