According to a recent report by The Apple Valley Patch in Minnesota, Brett “The Grim” Rodgers will have to be very careful of the words he chooses when talking about his upcoming match and opponent.

As terms of his upcoming probation, Brett is violation if he is in participation of “assaultive or intimidating behavior to anyone”. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail after being  convicted of assaulting his wife this past summer, and is due to be released later this month.

Brett is set to face former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Tim “The Maniac” Sylvia at Dream in Japan at the annual New Years event, December 31st. Not surprisingly people are beginning to refer to the upcoming bout as “cop vs convict” as Tim is now a part-time police officer. Brett Rodgers most recently lost a split decision over Eddie Sanchez at Titan Fighting Championships 20, on September 23rd.

KneebarBuffet here tonight on September 23 in Kansas City, KS for Titan Fighting Championship 20. The show is filled with local talent looking to make a name for themselves and established pros fixing to show the world why they get paid to throw the four-ounce sleeping pills. Dreams will be shattered, hearts will be broken and memories will be made. All this and more live on HDNet, but for those without that channel (and that is a lot of you), you can keep up to date here with results and commentary live from the arena!

The main card will start off with  heavyweights Justin Riley vs. Alex Huddleston. James Krause will be battling Sean Wilson in a heated showdown. Alex Gutierrez will showcase his skills against Shane Hutchinson. Former UFC and Bellator FC vet Eddie Sanchez will take on former Strikeforce/EliteXC vet Brett Rogers. Also, former WEC lightweight world champion Jamie Varner will try to show why he was once at the top of the mountain when he competes against Dakota Cochrane.

Hit the jump for the full results, updated after each bout!

Titan FC 20 Quick Results
1.Shanita Fane vs Laura Marcusse

Laura Marcusse via armbar rd. 1 0:54

2. Sinjen Ruby vs Cody Peterson

Cody Peterson via UD

3. Mark Brown vs Chris Cardello

Chris Cardello via UD

4. Ryan Parker vs Jeremy Smith

Jeremy Smith via RNC

5. Trey Johnson vs Tony Cardello

Tony Cardello via UD

6. Andrew Whitney vs. Laramie Schaffer

Andrew Whitney via rd. 2 0:21 KO flying knee

7. Alex Huddleston vs. Justyn Riley

Justyn Riley via rd. 2 4:42 TKO strikes

8. James Krause vs. Sean Wilson

James Krause via rd. 1 2:39 SUB guillotine

9. Anthony Gutierrez vs. John Devall

Anthony Gutierrez via rd.1 1:05 SUB gator roll and/or darce choke

10. Brett Rogers vs. Eddie Sanchez

Eddie Sanchez via split decision 30/27 sanchez. 29/28 rogers. 30/27 sanchez.

11. Jamie Varner vs. Dakota Cochrane

Dakota Cochrane via UD

Live on HDnet and from the historic Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas, Titan Fighting Championship 20 goes down this Friday, September 23. Jamie Varner will be making his debut in the company, along with Brett Rogers, in featured bouts, along with other local pro and amateur fighters facing off. Team Fight Nerd will be on hand for this show with a liveblog of what goes down, so stay tuned to that this weekend!

The fight card goes as follows.

-MAIN EVENT-
155 lbs. Jamie Varner (17-6-1) vs. Alonzo Martinez (31-12-1)

CO-MAIN EVENT-
Heavyweight.Brett Rogers (11-3) vs. Eddie Sanchez (12-5)

135 lbs. Anthony Gutierrez (3-0) vs. John Devall (3-0)

165 lbs. James Krause (13-4) vs. Sean Wilson (30-15)

140 lbs. Andrew Whitney (4-1) vs. Laramie Schaffer (4-2)

Heavyweight. Alex Huddleston (1-0) vs. Justyn Riley (3-2)

-Amateur Fights-

Trey Johnson vs Tony Cardello

Ryan Parker vs Jeremy Smith

Mark Brown vs Chris Cardello

Sinjen Ruby vs Cody Peterson

Shanita Fane vs Laura Marcusse

Looks like Fedor is not done with MMA yet, at least according to his management.

Vadim Finkelstein, co-founder of M-1 Global, confirmed on M-1′s official site that Russian heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko will fight in his homeland for the first time since April 2007. “Fedor is going to fight in late fall in Russia,” Vadim wrote, “We have already reached all the necessary agreements on his fight.” Vadim previously stated that Fedor would fight for M-1 in November, in a fight to be aired on Showtime in what was assumed to be held in America. It seems that idea is off, and Fedor will head back to the country that made him famous… well, the other country since Japan is what made him famous.

Fedor was last seen in the Strikeforce cage in a losing effort against Dan Henderson that ended with the third loss in a row for the former Pride FC Heavyweight champ. His last win was against Brett Rogers back in November 2009, yet his shows continue to be some of the highest rated for Showtime. No opponent, location, or date has been announced yet, but we will keep you up to date if any of that news changes.

A heavyweight showdown between EliteXC and Strikeforce veteran Brett “The Grim” Rogers (11-3 with 9 (T)KOs) and UFC and Bellator Fighting Championships veteran Eddie Sanchez (12-5 with 8 (T)KOs) has been announced as the main event for “HDNet Presents: Titan Fighting Championship 20” on Friday, September 23. The news of Rogers’ addition to the Titan Fighting Championship roster was revealed during Friday’s edition of “Inside MMA” in a one-on-one interview between Rogers and HDNet’s Ron Kruck.

“The goal of Titan since we became partners with HDNet was to put on exciting fights,” said Titan Fighting Championship CEO Joe Kelly. “A double-header featuring Rogers vs. Sanchez and former WEC lightweight world champion Jamie Varner vs. Alonzo Martinez promises to be one of our best shows to date.”

Rogers began his career with a perfect 10-0 record in which his win streak was highlighted by a 22-second first round KO victory over former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski in June of 2009. The Chicago native was also featured on the first-ever network prime-time broadcast of an MMA bout back in May 31, 2008 during CBS’ first-ever “Saturday Night Fights” airing. Additionally, Rogers received further notoriety when he was featured in MMA’s return to CBS against Fedor Emelianenko in November of 2009 at “Strikeforce/M-1 Global Present: Fedor vs. Rogers.”

However, on June 29 of this year, Rogers found himself in the headlines again. But this time for the wrong reasons after being arrested on charges of third degree assault against his wife, Tiuana. Rogers and his wife appeared on camera with Kruk but declined to discuss details. However, Rogers’ attorney, Murad Mohammad, told HDNet that his client is looking forward to addressing the allegations in court. In the meantime, Rogers is now training full-time at the Minnesota MMA Academy with plans on recording yet another dramatic knockout victory on national television.

“Brett has made a lot of changes in recent months and it will be exciting to see how much of a difference they’ve made in Brett’s game,” said Kelly. “But Eddie Sanchez is not exactly the type of fight you want to walk into when you’re looking to make sure your comeback starts off the right way. This one has slugfest written all over it.”

A few months ago, I had a chance to speak with a few of the participants from this weekends second round of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament. Seeing as how the fights go down this Saturday evening, might as well give fans a second chance to check these out in case they missed it the first time.

Above is Brett Rogers, who we spoke with back when the second round was scheduled for an earlier date. We talked about his thoughts on fighting Barnett (and if he thinks Barnett will even be cleared to fight), why he took such big fights so early in his career, who is the biggest threat in the tournament, and who will the entire event! Plus, the return of the mohawk!

After the jump, my infamous interview with Josh Barnett where he talks about his fight with Rogers as well, and also breaks down the talk about his steroid use and tells Dana White to drink his piss!

The second step of Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix will be delayed until early summer, according to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, in order to capitalize properly on the success of its first event.

“The overwhelming success in New Jersey set the bar high,” Coker told MMAjunkie.com. “With a record pre-sale for Strikeforce tickets and a record viewership on Showtime, we’ve now given ourselves the proper amount of time to promote in one of the country’s biggest markets.” The Feb. 12 telecast from New Jersey’s IZOD center averaged 741,000 viewers and peaked with 1.1 million viewers for a headlining bout between Fedor Emelianenko and Antonio Silva.

For some time, rumors swirled about the location of the next event, despite a date of April 9 being set. Coker has now pushed back the date and is looking to hold the second quarterfinal event on June 18 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. The event features two tournament bouts: Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem looking to exact revenge on Fabricio Werdum (in a non-title affair) and Josh Barnett taking on Brett Rogers.

The April 9 event, which will be held at the Valley View Casino Center In San Diego, California, will now features two title fights: welterweight champ Nick Diaz defending his title against Paul Daley (who fought this past weekend in what was supposed to be a title fight but was unable to make weight), and lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez defending his belt against Tatsuya Kawajiri. The card will also feature a match between current DREAM Light Heavyweight Champion Gegard Mousasi against Mike Kyle.

Rumor has it that Shinya Aoki and Hiroyuki Takaya will also compete on this card, and it will be broadcast to Japan at a later time.

Well, folks, this is it! Strikeforce: Fedor VS Silva is upon us, kicking off the biggest heavyweight tournament in ages and giving East Coast fans a chance to see some of the best in the world throw down. With all of this excitement, let’s recap all of the stuff that happened on TheFightNerd.com leading into this show and hope that the hype is as good as the fights!

Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva gave us his thoughts on fighting one of the most dominant fighters in MMA, the scoop on leaving American Top Team and explained that he genuinely does not like Alistair Overeem.We also spoke with Brett Rogers, who unveiled the return of his glorious mohawk, and talked about his fight with Barnett, if Barnett will pass the drug test, and who will give him the toughest fight. Strikeforce president Scott Coker also gave us a great two-part interview, where he discussed the outcome of the tournament and the issues that arose from putting it together, and then Batista in MMA and thoughts on Japanese MMA & Brock Lesnar.

I was also present for their press conference on Wednesday at Chelsea Piers, which saw all of the fighters in the tournament, including the reserves, talking about just how huge this tournament really was and answering all of the media’s question on a variety of topics. Yesterday, I shot photos from the weigh-ins, and also got that super-huge EXCLUSIVE video of all eight fighters in the tournament rehearsing the Pride style parade of fighters that will kick off this historic event (if you haven’t seen it, you should now!), and that brings us to today. This is it, folks, hours away from the beginning of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix! Expect a ton more videos and photos this week from the show and a bunch of interviews with the people involved in the show. Leave your predictions in the comments section, and for anyone attending the show today, come say hi to me if you see me! WAR FEDOR!

Strikeforce held a grand press conference at Lighthouse 61 in Chelsea Piers yesterday with all eight of the fighters in their heavyweight grand prix in the house, as well as the reserve fighters. Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Brett Rogers, Sergei Kharitonov, Andrei Arlovski and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva all answered questions, along with Strikeforce President Scott Coker, and M-1′s director of operations Evgeni Kogan.

Topics included when the tournament would end, how reserves would be implemented in case of an injury (and how big of an injury warrants a reserve stepping in), location of the next event, what fighter thinks they are the favorite to win it all, how they are preparing, and many other questions that led to a very entertaining press conference. Seriously, Fabricio Werdum and Antonio Silva were telling jokes and Josh Barnett rocked the mic in typical pro-wrestler fashion to deliver some excellent quotables. Even Fedor began to screw around with the press, and believe me, hearing Fedor make jokes is truly a surreal thing.

“The biggest thing from my perspective is how you, the media, perceive it and if you will take the onus to view it objectively or if there will be a bias,” Josh Barnett said at one point when asked about the importance of this event. “If it’s a constant three letter [comparison]…if it’s not the UFC then its not as good, then you’re really sort of shitting on all that were doing here. I want everyone to look at it from a subjective standpoint, for what it is…at the end of the day it doesn’t matter where it takes place…it’s about the fighters themselves…our accomplishments will shine no matter what cage, or ring, or back alley, whatever it takes to accomplish what it is to be a fighter.”

“Why can’t there be two leagues?” Scott Coker added. “I don’t have to hurt their business to grow my business and that’s my philosophy. I don’t wake up and worry about what’s going on on the other side of the fence. I have enough work here to worry about what’s on my side of the fence.”

The Fight Nerd spoke with Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski recently about his participation in the opening round of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. Arlovski discussed his streak of losses, why he thinks his opponent Sergei Kharitonov is so evenly matched with him, and who he expects to meet in the finals. One thing I immediately noted when doing this interview was how negative Arlovski was about himself. It wasn’t that he was tired, he just seemed mentally gone, and this interview was done about two weeks ago! Arlovski mentioned he is training at a new place now so if that particular trainer can not salvage Arlovski both mentally and physically, this Saturday might be the last we see of him in Strikeforce sadly.

Don’t forget to check out my interviews with Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva who meets Fedor Emelianenko this weekend and Brett Rogers who will be taking on Josh Barnett coming up in the next round!