Bowling Bio

Mixed Martial Arts Career

Roger knew he wanted to be a professional athlete but was too small for football and basketball. He then turned to Boxing and compiled a 9-0 record before quitting because it was doing too much damage to his head. Roger then found out about a mixed martial arts academy, close to where he was living. He decided to go out and give it a try. Roger ended up making the fight team of Team G-Force, after going 2-1 in his amateur career Roger left the team and the academy, he then went to train with Team Vision. In Bowling's first professional fight, he took on Chris Runge, the fight was held by MMA Bigshow, Bowling won the fight via knockout in the first round. He later took on undefeated Shamar Bailey and won the fight giving Bailey his first only loss to date. The fight earned Bowling the RFL Welterweight Championship.

Rumors stated that Strikeforce signed Bailey and planned on signing Bowling to fight a rematch.

On June 20, Bowling was set to fight former UFC welterweight War Machine. However Roger broke his hand a couple weeks before the event and was not cleared to fight. The two agreed to fight later in the year. Before rescheduling, Roger defeated Devon Plaisance. Bowling was set to fight War Machine in the main event of XFC 9 in Tampa, Florida on September 5, however, Bowling was again forced to withdraw due to injury.

Bowling signed with Strikeforce and was set to make his debut in November of 2009 but was forced to withdraw because of an injury. The signing took place inside the MMA Big Show cage where Big Show President and Bowling’s manager made the official announcement and Roger signed the agreement right there in front of his fan base. According to the terms of the agreement, Bowling will still be able to fight for the MMA Big Show until he is a contender in the promotion or holds a Strikeforce title.

His debut with Strikeforce finally took place at ShoMMA 8: Lindland vs. Casey on May 21, 2010, where he faced off against Bobby Voelker. Bowling delivered powerful blasts from all angles in the opening two frames, and takedowns put an exclamation point on his advantage over Voelker. Nevertheless, Voelker kept the contest entertaining by answering back with accurate counterstrikes. Needing a stoppage in the third, Voelker came out with a heightened sense of urgency. But during an otherwise routine restart early in the frame, Voelker's glove got Bowling in the eye. Bowling tried to convince cageside physicians that he could continue despite being unable to open his eye, but the officials made the sensible decision and went to the cards, where Bowling was awarded the Decision (Unanimous). A re-match seemed extremely likely as Bowling apologized profusely to the crowd and said he wanted the two to square off again.