One day, maybe Saturday, maybe 500 on Saturdays from now, bowling, watching Roger and the man who represented nearly 30 percent of its 11 first Prizefighter and thank him. He can already do now with his third match against Bobby Voelker next Friday in Las Vegas. But the fact is, it will finally shake hands with his opponent for the lesson it had taught him in October last year.
In this battle of the fall of 2010 in Fresno, California, bowling and hardliners Voelker undefeated veteran met a second time. In the first fight, the two welterweights that slugging for almost three laps before diving Bowling made accidental eye could not continue. He earned a technical decision victory and revenge was a natural.
Bowling thought it would be easier the second time around, and he was preparing as such. But as the match approached, everything started to turn, leaving him with little to fall back on the next Fight Night.
"If I could take in sick that night, would have," he admits, after feeling the effects of a new regime that resulted in reduced weight, poor was followed by an inability to adequately hydrate. He entered the cage at only 173 pounds, and bad luck was compounded when he broke a bone in his leg during a kick Voelker marked on the inside of the leg at first. Add at the veteran Voelker and enhanced gaming experience, and things would get ugly.
And they did. Bowling Voelker finally crushed in the fight by TKO in the second round.
Bowling had learned a lesson eight previous victories were not, and it is not surprising that he would have felt a bit invincible in the face a rematch with Voelker. Let's face it, even before the first fight, he needed only 28 seconds to knock out the veteran (and current UFC fighter) Shamar Bailey, and only nine seconds ended the competition on the night of The Ultimate Fighter Seth Baczynski. Voelker victory over his victory was the first decision, and even that does not go three rounds. His first defeat? This was a revelation to many levels.