TUF 22 cast member Saul ‘The Hangman’ Rogers claimed there was a “homely environment” during his time on the reality television series with Team Europe due to his familiarity with Conor McGregor and his SBG teammates.

The 10-1 lightweight booked his place in the house with a second round rear naked choke victory over Dutch striker Paulo Boer on the series premiere as his head coach Karl Tanswell watched on. Training at SBG Mainline in Manchester, Rogers has previously trained with McGregor and a lot of the SBG Ireland team, which he believes made his time in the house go a lot smoother.

“I’ve trained with Conor before and I’ve trained with Artem,” said Rogers who also won a split decision over ‘The Russian Hammer’ back in 2011. “I’ve trained with Gunni and all of them kind of guys so being in the house was actually like being in a homely environment in a way because I knew some of the guys in there and I had previously trained with Conor.

“It was a bit of an advantage in a way, it just put me at ease a bit more than the others I think because I knew the guys a little bit before hand.”

A member of McGregor’s coaching crew and well known as the interim champion’s preferred pad man, former Irish featherweight champion Owen Roddy seems to have gone down as a hit in the Team Europe ranks. When asked about ‘Rowdy’, Rogers insisted that having the original SBG Ireland trailblazer on their team was “a huge bonus.”

“That was actually the first time I’d seen Owen Roddy in a coaching role and the guy is just amazing on the pads. Usually when you’re working with a pad man it can take quite a few sessions to get used to the movement and things like that.

“As soon as you put on a pair of gloves and you start hitting pads with Owen, he immediately picks up on the style of the guy that he’s working with. To have him coaching us over there, that was a huge bonus,” outlined Rogers in praise of the Primal head coach.

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@PetesyCarroll