Brett Rogers' coach talks fighting Fedor

By Guilherme Cruz

Sérgio Cunha has no fear of challenges. After prepare a discredited Mauricio “Shogun“ to face the former champion Chuck Liddell, the Muay Thai trainer coach is training Brett Rogers to face, on November 7, the biggest heavyweight of the world: Fedor Emelianenko. Talking to TATAME.com, Cunha talked about the training, each one’s chances, talked about the fight between BJ Penn, which he already trained, and Diego Sanchez, and the controversy decision between Maurício Shogun and Lyoto Machida. Check below the chat with the trainer.

How’s Brett’s preparation to fight Fedor?

The preparation is good, I made an strategy and a fight plan and he’s prepared, following the strategy where I believe that he can win this fight.

Brett has only ten fights and he will face the world’s number one. How do you see that?

It’s a gold chance. He’ll have the chance that a few had against the best pound for pound fighter and this chance is an amazing thing, and at the same time is a big pressure, the athlete can’t think too much about it. If the guy thinks and respects Fedor, he won’t fight... He has to have the control and execute inside the cage everything that he trained.

Are you also working the psychological part?

I’m doing everything, since the strategy, the fight plan... We know his real chances, we know that it’s a hard fight, he’s a big guy, strong, and we’ve worked his hand, the boxing, the clinch, a lot of knees, and we’ll try to make the fight standing up, where he has chances to use his best weapons and win the fight.

Do you think that Fedor will take the fight to the ground?

Fedor is aggressive and I think that he won’t try to take Rogers down. He’s brave, that’s why Fedor is Fedor. I think he’ll try to exchange and then, if the hand comes in or if he feels, he’ll try to work on the ground, unless Fedor comes more cautious and understands that Brett is very big and dangerous, that if a punch hits it may decide the fight.

Are you still working with BJ Penn?

No, it’s been a while... People can’t understand. Nowadays, on United States, there’s a lot of camps, he made a six months camp with me. It’s a MMA practice here, people can continue or not. On his case, Hawaii is far away, out of United States, almost another country, and it’s complicated to keep with him. Here the work is a little different, and that’s very nice.

Knowing BJ well, how do you think it’s gonna be his fight against Diego Sanchez?

I think it’s gonna be a hard fight, because Diego is more dangerous than Kenny Florian, he kicks really well, but if BJ comes up as against Kenny, he’ll demolish him with no problems.

And Shogun? What did you think about his fight against Lyoto?

Both are my friends. I’ve trained Shogun for a while and I was very happy because he used what he’d learned with me on this fight, he doesn’t forget it. I thought that Shogun won because he connected more blows and was more aggressive, searched the victory more. Lyoto is a great fighter, I like him, but he didn’t block the kicks and, if you analyze it, Shogun made more points, besides walking forward in the fight. He showed more will to win, while Lyoto was walking to the back side. Shogun lost the first two rounds, but won the last three.

What do you expect from their rematch?

I think that the rematch will be amazing, both will be back better. Everyone was saying that Shogun would lose, that Lyoto would kick his ass, but Shogun won the fight morally, so he’ll be back confident, and Lyoto will be back more aggressive. We’ll have a fight better than that.