Roger Bowling Victorious in Strikeforce Debut

Roger Bowling tops Bobby Voelker by Unanimous Decision to remain undefeated

"Relentless" Roger Bowling lived up to his nickname on Friday night. Fighting at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon in front of a strong crowd of MMA fans Bowling came out strong and dominated "Vicious" Bobby Voelker for two rounds. The two exchanged punches with Bowling landing several big shots to Voelker's face cutting his left eye in the 1st round. The 2nd round was very similar with Bowling landing the majority of the punches to the head of the iron-chinned Voelker while also mixing in a variety of kicks. But in a closely-contested 3rd round, while the referee was separating the fighters, Bowling took a finger to the eye. The eye poke proved to be the end of the fight as the doctor continued to examine Bowling's eye despite pleas by Roger to let him fight. While the crowd did not understand or respect the situation, it was clear to Showtime viewers that Bowling was frustrated by the situation and by the fact that he was not allowed to continue. Based on the rules of mixed martial arts they went ot the judges' scorecards where all three judges scored the fight 29-28 giving Bowling the victory.

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With the win Bowling improves his career record to 8-0 with 7 finishes prior to Friday night's fight. With wins over TUF 11 contestant Seth Baczynski, Strikeforce welterweight Shamar Bailey and now Voelker, a veteran of 29 professional fights and an iron chin, the sky is the limit for Bowling. "That guy's a star in the making" said Steven Quadros, aka The Fight Professor, in the show's closing comments. Let's hope the eye injury sustained by Bowling is not a serious one so that we can see this young "star in the making" back in the cage again soon to continue to show his tremendous potential in MMA.