Expand<\/a><\/p>\nDave Morgan and Aaron Kennedy first met on the high school wrestling mat.<\/p>\n
They never competed against each other, as the former wrestlers turned mixed martial artists have a nine-year age gap. However, Kennedy, a Honesdale graduate, recalls one constant when he saw the West Scranton and King\u2019s College wrestling legend and former Scranton assistant coach in the early 2010s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d shake his hand after pinning his wrestler,\u201d said Kennedy, who went 5-0 against Scranton opponents during his career from 2009 to 2012. \u201cHe\u2019d look at me like this son of a (gun) beats us every time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgan\u2019s response?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably the worst crap talk I\u2019ve ever heard,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cHe better watch. Those are fighting words.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two former Lackawanna League wrestlers will meet again \u2014 this time with an MMA bantamweight title on the line.<\/p>\n
Their bout is part of the Art of War Cage Fighting 43 card Saturday, Aug. 16 at Live! Casino & Hotel in Philadelphia. Doors open at 6 p.m. with the first fight scheduled for 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a rising star. I don\u2019t want to ruin Aaron\u2019s life,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cI like the guy. I\u2019m a fan of his. I enjoy it. They\u2019re going to put me in a spot where it was like, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re going to put a belt on the line. You\u2019re gonna fight Aaron Kennedy.\u2019 And the way I look at it is why not? I don\u2019t have anything to lose. It\u2019s gonna be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kennedy also respects Morgan, but has his eye on that belt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of professional fighters over the years coming from our area, so it\u2019s a cool thing,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to see the both of us fighting at that level. It\u2019s a shame I\u2019ve got to knock him out.\u201d<\/p>\n
While their paths intersect, they took different routes to their destinations.<\/p>\n
Morgan\u2019s roadmap<\/p>\n
At West Scranton from 2000 to 2004, Morgan was a two-time state medalist \u2014 fourth place as a sophomore and runner-up as a senior \u2014 and finished his career with 144 wins, which is still a program record.<\/p>\n
He moved on to King\u2019s, where he became a two-time Division III national champion (2007, 2008) and a three-time conference champion and finished with an 86-7 career record.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, his amateur MMA career kicked off in 2006. Four years later, he captured a title and entered the professional ranks. He has a 6-11 professional record, securing a belt in 2022. A year later, he tried to defend the title, but lost and retired \u2026 again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI retire every fight. I\u2019ve been retiring the minute I started doing this,\u201d Morgan, 40, said with a laugh. \u201cI never even thought I\u2019d be doing this, but I love to compete. I was on a great path. I fought these big main events in Atlantic City, and then my career kind of took a dive and I retired. I have a family, I joined the military, but I always kept my foot in the door and I kind of just became a journeyman.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his MMA career, Morgan moved away from Scranton for 10 years, but is back now and heavily involved in the wrestling community. An engineer in the National Guard, Morgan also serves as an instructor for the West Scranton Wrestling Alumni Junior Club, which is for kids from kindergarten to sixth grade (ages 5-12) and free for Scranton School District students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys have a great facility down there,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cIt\u2019s an awesome environment. We\u2019re just a start-up, and it\u2019s awesome to be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kennedy\u2019s course<\/p>\n
Kennedy had a strong high school wrestling career, compiling 92 wins in three seasons with the Hornets and qualifying for regionals three times.<\/p>\n
After graduating from Honesdale, he was ready to get into the octagon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to Bloomsburg University to wrestle, but pretty much as soon as I found out that we had an MMA gym in town I quit wrestling and started training there,\u201d Kennedy, 31, said. \u201cSo, I started fighting as an amateur in college.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went 8-3 as an amateur, capturing a belt in 2017 before turning pro in 2018. After dropping his first two fights, Kennedy is on a five-match win streak.<\/p>\n
Like Morgan, Kennedy also serves as a youth instructor at Bloomsburg Martial Arts Academy, where he also trains and helps with other classes. He also checks in on Honesdale wrestling, and a couple years ago, he did a seminar for the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wrestled since I was in first grade all the way up,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cThose guys were good to me. If I didn\u2019t have wrestling as a kid, I don\u2019t know where I\u2019d be now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fight<\/p>\n
Morgan is more impressed with Kennedy every time he watches film on him, but he welcomes the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I watched I think I can beat him, and now as I watch and the fight gets closer I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh man, this is gonna suck.\u2019 But, this is why you fight,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cI\u2019m putting myself in the fight. I don\u2019t know what I have left in the tank, but I\u2019m willing to shock the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to end this thing on a high note with my kids in that cage and we\u2019re all celebrating with a belt. And if it goes the other way, good for Aaron. But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s how it\u2019s gonna happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kennedy won\u2019t underestimate Morgan on the road to his sixth-straight victory and a title.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got 17 pro fights. Anybody who knows fighting will tell you that anybody with that many fights is tough, they\u2019re a threat,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cHe\u2019s a tough dude. He\u2019s game. He\u2019s fought a lot of high-level opponents. He\u2019s not really scared to fight anybody.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know who he is, he knows who I am. He\u2019s kind of called me out. He\u2019s been wanting to fight me.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Morgan wins, he said he\u2019ll once again retire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m leaving those gloves in that cage, and I\u2019m walking out with that belt,\u201d Morgan said.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 9, 2025 at 12:00 AM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Morgan Aaron Kennedy Aaron Kennedy vs. Dave Morgan. COURTESY OF ART OF WAR CAGE FIGHTING Show Caption…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-56862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Aaron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/STT-L-MMA-01.jpg\")
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