Hinton Crowned LW Champ, Bowling Beats Mann at MMA Big Show: Relentless

By Dan Hauenstein

“Hitman” Chad Hinton (2-0) won “Hammer” Joe Ammerman’s (4-2) lightweight title; and, “Relentless” Roger Bowling (5-0) defeated Paul Mann (2-1) in the co-main event Saturday night in Covington, south of Cincinnati, as MMA Big Show celebrated its second anniversary with Relentless.

The fight between Hinton and Ammerman went the full distance of three rounds, not the five usually allotted to title bouts.

Round one saw Ammerman survive an eye poke and Hinton survived a close call with a kick to the groin. 
After exchanging blows at the beginning of the match, Hinton repeatedly took down Ammerman but was unable to finish, ultimately earning him a score of 29-28 across the board for the unanimous decision win, and the lightweight belt.

Stepping in on two days’ notice, Mann was unable to defeat Welterweight Champion Bowling in a non-title bout.

After attempting a guillotine choke on Bowling, he got caught in Bowling’s guillotine and was forced to tap at 3:20 of the first round.

Mann was the final replacement for the originally-scheduled title challenger “Squeeze” Sam Morgan (18-10).  Morgan pulled out ten days before the match due to injury sustained in his loss to “Bang” Duane Ludwig (17-8) earlier in October at Strikeforce.

Amateur bouts rounded out the rest of the card.