UFC on FOX 9 results, photos: Abel Trujillo beats up Roger Bowling in rematch

SACRAMENTO – The second meeting between Abel Trujillo and Roger Bowling ended a lot like the first, only this time there was no question about whether Trujillio’s strikes were legal.

Instead, the question was how Bowling managed to take so many of them before finally succumbing to a TKO stoppage at 1:35 of the second round.

The lightweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC on FOX 9 event at Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento. It aired on FOX Sports 1 following an additional prelim on MMAjunkie and ahead of the main card on FOX.

There was no shortage of bad blood coming into this rematch. After their first fight ended in a no-contest due illegal knees by Trujillo in August, both fighters came in looking to settle the score. It didn’t take long, however, before Trujillo asserted his dominance, battering Bowling throughout the first round until it felt like only a matter of time before he lowered the boom.

The end came early on in the second frame, when a Trujillo takedown led to some brutal strikes on the ground, punctuated by a very legal knee to the body of a bloody and weary Bowling. After a few more solid right hands from Trujillo, referee John McCarthy had seen enough, stepping in to stop it while Bowling wobbled on his feet.

“I was making a statement with this fight,” Trujillo said. “I had to finish him to make that statement. It hurt me not to get a win in the first fight. I know there was some trash talking between us, but it was nothing personal. Things got heated at times, but I knew I couldn’t fight on emotion. I actually had a dream last night that told me not to fight on emotion. Beating him was like conquering a demon.”

Bowling (11-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC) has now lost three of his past four, with his last victory coming in March of 2012. Trujillo (11-5 MMA, 2-1 UFC) bounces back into the win column for the first time since his UFC debut in December of 2012.

Up-to-the-minute UFC on FOX 9 results include:

For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 9, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

John Morgan and Steven Marrocco contributed to this report on-site in Sacramento.