Lapwai's Noriega wins amateur MMA debut in front of hometown crowd at Clearwater Combat

Noriega watched his math teacher, Chris Katus, win a MMA bout last year in a similar event in about 40 seconds. One year later, Noriega stepped out from backstage to a chorus of cheers. Among the sold-out ...

Apr. 19—His math teacher did it. So, on Saturday night in the Clearwater Combat mixed martial arts event at Clearwater River Casino, Lapwai's Marcisio Noriega proved that he could do it too.

Noriega watched his math teacher, Chris Katus, win a MMA bout last year in a similar event in about 40 seconds. One year later, Noriega stepped out from backstage to a chorus of cheers. Among the sold-out crowd of about 1,600, it seemed like the entire city of Lapwai had come out to support him in his amateur debut.

"It was just a crazy moment," Noriega said. "I mean, just having that feeling of a whole 1,000 (person) community right behind you is just amazing. There's not (many) feelings in the world that can beat that when you have that many people to support you at such a low level, especially for my debut.