Brett Rogers looks to get a fresh start in Bellator

• Brett Rogers was sentenced to 60 days in jail after pleading guilty to assault in 2011
• Rogers had been delivering newspapers in Minnesota since his release from jail
• Rogers will fight Russian Alexander Volkov at Bellator 75 on Friday

It took less than two years for Brett Rogers to go from fighting for the Strikeforce heavyweight title to delivering newspapers just to pay his bills.

His was a decline of his own making, which he had plenty of time to think about as he stacked copies of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the same newspaper that months earlier had published a story of his arrest for domestic violence in June of 2011.

"That was just a bad, bad day," said Rogers, who pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in November of 2011 and received a 60-day sentence. "It was real rough. A lot of stresses were going on in my life, and I wasn't dealing with it right."

It was a bad day that also cost him his job with Zuffa, which owns Strikeforce as well as the UFC, and left him wondering whether he'd ever be able to mend the damage he'd done to his marriage and his career. On Friday, Rogers takes his first step back toward the limelight at Bellator 75 (8 p.m. ET, MTV2), where he'll compete in the opening round of Bellator's Season 7 heavyweight tournament.

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney described the decision to sign Rogers as a "long, involved process" that took several months. At the same time, said Rebney, "I've always been a believer in second chances."

Rebney said he was won over in the end because he got the chance to ask Rogers some pointed questions about the night he assaulted his wife. He also heard from Rogers about how things had changed since the incident.

"I got on the phone with him and listened to his story, listened to him express regret for what had happened, and it all came off as very legitimate," Rebney said. "He was working delivering papers, getting up at like 3:30 in the morning. He could have made more working as a bouncer in a club, but he told me he didn't want to do that because it would put him in the wrong environment, and he was trying to make things right with his wife. It sounded honest to me."

Rogers said his time in jail and the court-mandated counseling sessions after his release helped him turn things around.

"I learned that, first and foremost, you have to want to change," Rogers said. "And I had a lot of time to think about it. I had to sit in the jail and think about what happened, and I made promises to myself."

If Rogers (12-4) can pull his career together over the course of the three-fight tournament that begins with his bout against Russian Alexander Volkov (16-3) on Friday, it will make for a positive first step.

But redemption isn't going to come only in the cage, Rogers said. And he doesn't expect it to come all at once.

Fowlkes also writes for MMAjunkie.com