Brett Rogers pleads guilty in domestic abuse case, faces five-year sentence

Brett Rogers made a plea deal on third-degree assault.

​Brett Rogers, the St. Paul product who shot to the top of the mixed martial arts world in 2009, continued on his rapid decline yesterday when he pleaded guilty to third-degree assault charges for an attack on his wife.

Rogers was arrested in late June for an ugly incident where he was alleged to have choked and repeatedly punched his wife until she was unconscious, all while his children tried to stop the violence.

When police arrived, Rogers' oldest daughter told them that he'd beaten his wife and children in the past.

Police found Rogers drunkenly slurring his speech that night, and claiming that he'd hit only struck back in self-defense; his wife was found walking through the neighborhood, bloodied, missing a tooth and with a "golf ball-sized lump" above her eyebrow, according to the Pioneer Press.

Rogers faced a series of charges as a result of that night -- stalking, third-degree assault, domestic assault by strangulation and endangerment of a child -- but has rid himself of all but the third-degree assault in his plea deal. That's not to say he got off easy: When Rogers appears at a sentencing hearing on November 30, he could get up to five years in prison, according to the Pioneer Press.

Even before he could face justice in a court room, Rogers' career was slashed, with Strikeforce terminating his contract the day after the domestic abuse. Even before his arrest, Rogers was on the down-slope, having most recently fought on June 18, when opponent Josh Barnett choked him out in the second round.

Previously:

• Brett Rogers arrested for domestic assault
• Brett Rogers hit with restraining order after menacing St. Paul neighbors
• Brett Rogers: The baddest man on the planet