Johnson\u2019s opponent, Morales, trains in the Boise area, but graduated from Orofino High School.<\/p>\n
Lapwai High School alum Marcisio Noriega has taken his talents from the hardwood to the cage.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s picked up things really quick, works really hard,\u201d Arnett said of Noriega. \u201cHe\u2019s been one of the more disciplined students that I\u2019ve had in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Wildcats basketball player will be making his amateur MMA debut opposite Jeremiah Seaver, a Grangeville resident who brings a boxing background to his own amateur debut.<\/p>\n
Lewiston\u2019s Jamison Hunt (3-1) trains at Underdog Martial Arts. He will challenge Jacob Guertin of Moses Lake, Wash.<\/p>\n
Arnett said that his focus when creating the event is to match the fighters up as evenly as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a sold-out crowd, 1,600 people,\u201d Arnett said. \u201cThe crowd is always electric. It\u2019s super loud. I always say it\u2019s the best crowd in the Northwest. I go to all these events all over the Northwest, and I really believe that there\u2019s not a better crowd than Lewiston, that nobody gets as loud and excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arnett\u2019s late father, Frank Arnett, began hosting fights at the local casino beginning in 2008. Austin Arnett took over in 2021, with a dedicated team behind him.<\/p>\n
With fighters and fans from across the Pacific Northwest and into Canada, the event has grown over the years, Arnett said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the explosion in the valley with MMA. … Ever since coming out of COVID, it seems like it\u2019s just been a very, very hot commodity and an event that people love coming to,\u201d Arnett said. \u201cWe\u2019ve sold out every time, every event since COVID, and we\u2019re on track to sell out this one as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tickets were available as of Friday night on the Clearwater River Casino website.<\/p>\n
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2260, staylor@lmtribune.com, or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnson\u2019s opponent, Morales, trains in the Boise area, but graduated from Orofino High School. Lapwai High School alum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-614777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614777","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=614777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}