As "The Ultimate Fighter" and Fight Night shows have provided a spring board for budding stars to hone their talents in preparation for Prime Time competition overseas, on pay-per-views and viable contenders, the San Jose based organization Strikeforce, has been taking notes. Gearing up for their eleventh rendition of the popular "Strikeforce: Challenger Series" set for October 22 at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California, the promotion is adding possibly one their largest cards (for a challenger series) to the fold of Strikeforce events. ...

Join Reverend Turk Vangel, Gary Riedman, and Drew Hall  live Saturday night from 6:00 - 8:00 PM ET on MMA Gospel Radio.   MMA Gospel will welcome Strikeforce's newest welterweight "Relentless" Roger Bowling (6-0) to the show and have their prediction for UFC 105, which airs on SpikeTV immediately following the broadcast. Listen live and join the chat room at www.blogtalkradio.com/mmagospel. ...

Twenty-six year old Cincinnati stud “Relentless” Roger Bowling (5-0) has signed an exclusive contract with San Jose-based MMA promotion Strikeforce, according to a reliable source. ...

Twenty-six year old Cincinnati stud "Relentless" Roger Bowling (5-0) has been forced out of a long-awaited first test at the big time versus The Ultimate Fighter 6 contestant War Machine (8-2), formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver, at XFC 9 in Tampa 5 September due to broken knuckles injured in his 41-second TKO of Devon Plaisance (2-4) at MMA Big Show in Belterra 25 July. Jason Appleton, Bowling's manager, told Fighters.com Saturday morning, "Roger is devestated because he had a lot of people already with plane tickets in-hand, vacations planned, etc., all of which having to be cancelled. [UFC Matchmaker] Joe Silva and people from Strikeforce were awaiting the outcome of this fight. It was a damn big deal. It's a sad situation, but it's got to be put on hold." A frustrated War Machine described the unfortunate circumstance with a bit more color: "Roger Bowling is a fucking pussy! Twice we have been scheduled to fight now and twice he has suddenly gotten injured two weeks before the fight! If you're scared to fight the War Machine, don't sign on the dotted line, faggot!" ...

Two-time UFC veteran "Hater Hurter" Johnny Rees (10-2) and JG Academy's Chris Wells (5-4), a BJJ brown belt under Jorge Gurgel (13-5), headline MMA Big Show Unstoppable in Belterra, south of Cincinnati, Saturday 25 August. The welterweights will compete for a shot at the Big Show title on a card that features champion "Relentless" Roger Bowling (4-0) returning from a hand injury to fight Devon Plaisance (2-3). Reese was undefeated until entering the Octagon at UFC Fight Night 14 in Las Vegas in July 2008, when he was tapped in a triangle choke by Nate Loughran (8-1). "Hollywood" Steve Bruno (10-5) tapped him in a rear naked choke at Fight For The Troops in Fayetteville, North Carolina in December 2008. ...

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. ...

"Ninety-percent of [mixed martial arts] promoters in this country are working at a loss.”

MMA Big Show’s promoter, Jason Appleton, is a self-described “no bullshit kind of guy.”  At seven-feet tall, he sprawled across his lounger in his suburban Cincinnati home, spat dip into a plastic soda bottle, and told Fighters.com, “Anybody who thinks us promoters are making windfalls of cash are just are very, very ill-informed.  I lost thirty grand on my first show.  I lost over fifty grand on my second show!"

Appleton expects his 1 November show at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, south of Cincinnati, to be much more successful; but, putting on a successful MMA event is kind of like wriggling free from a gogoplata.

The next show, MMA Big Show’s fifth since 2006, is headlined by local talent, MMA Big Show Welterweight Champion “Relentless” Roger Bowling (3-0).

"Nobody knows this but you, right now.  Roger doesn't even know,” Appleton revealed.

Bowling was scheduled to fight Team Bison’s “The Squeeze” Sam Morgan (19-12); but, Morgan had taken a shot to his ribs from “Bang” Duane Ludwig (17-8) in Denver the previous weekend at Strikeforce Payback.

Appleton explained, “I got a call this morning from his coach and he said, ‘Hey, man, I just want to give you a heads up.  We've got to have Sammy checked out by the doctor because we tried to put some pressure on his ribs and it looks like he's in bad shape.’  So, they pulled out on me today.”

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