The first time Abel Trujillo and Roger Bowling met in August, the fight ended in controversy. Trujillo blasted Bowling with a knee late in the second round while it appeared Bowling’s own knee was still on the ground. With that anticlimax after a ferocious back-and-forth fight, the rematch was inevitable.
Nearly four months later they met again in Sacramento, and this time Trujillo left no gray area in dominating Cincinnati’s Bowling with a violent, no-nonsense second round TKO.
Trujillo came out throwing bombs right out of the gate, and bloodied Bowling early with a big left uppercut. For the bulk of the first round he mixed up his combinations and at one point took Bowling down and did some damage with his knees and elbows.
In the second round, Trujillo kept the pressure on, using his range and landing at will. This time when he got Bowling down, Trujillo picked him apart with a barrage of punches and a big knee — this time legally to the body — that hurt Bowling. It was academic from there, as Trujillo landed a couple of bombs as Bowling tried to get to his feet. Big John McCarthy stepped in at the 1:35 mark of the second round.
With the victory, Trujillo moved his record to 11-5-(1), marking his first victory in the Octagon since his debut against Marcus LeVesseur last December. Bowling sports the exact same record, 11-5-(1), but is now on a four-fight winless streak.