Daniel Swain beats Gabriel Solorio by 1st Rd armbar in the main event

King of the Cage kicked off another year of MMA at the Coeur d'Alene Casino on February 18th with a show dubbed "Explosive", featuring 7 professional and 3 amateur bouts. The main event featured two talented and experienced young featherweights in AKA's Daniel Swain at 25 years old and a 14-6-1 pro record, versus White Buffalo Warriors' Gabriel Solorio at 26 and holding a 12-10 record. In the first round, the fight went to the ground early with Swain on top looking to do damage, and Solorio defending from the bottom, limiting that damage while trying to escape. Swain kept grinding though, and when he saw the opportunity, he transitioned to a fight ending armbar at 3:26 of the first round. Impressive finish from Swain!

The King of the Cage: Explosive Co-main Event was in the pro 135 lb division and featured Spokane’s own Josh Rettinghouse taking on a tough So California fighter Rick James. The fight went the distance and Rettinghouse was impressive in utilizing his experience to strategically outwork a very game opponent in James. The final tally from the judges was 30-27, 29-28 x 2 for Rettinghouse who has won two straight and moves to 12-4 as a pro.

Two veteran NW bantamweights AKA’s Zach Lari (9-4) and Olympia WA’s Zach Skinner (8-10) had an excellent scrap in a 150 lb catchweight bout. The first round saw Skinner escape a standing guillotine attempt from Lari, and later in the round scoring with ground and pound. In the 2nd, the fighters came out and went toe-to-toe, slinging hard leather. When the fight went to the mat, Skinner locked in a D’Arce Choke to end it at 3:26 Rd 2.

Wyoming fighter Andrew Kauppila evened his record at 1-1, picking up his first pro win by knocking out Eatonville MMA’s Eric Cronkhite at 3:29 of the 2nd round. Cronkhite suffers his first pro loss and is now 3-1.

Kalispell MT’s Joaquin Calderon and local Warrior Camp fighter Jesse Hardenbrook had a competitive 140 lb catchweight battle that went the distance. Calderon pushed the pace throughout and after 15 minutes of fighting won a unanimous decision 30-27, 29-28 x2 to move his pro record to 4-2.

George de la Rosa of Spokane submitted Oregon fighter Matt Goff in the first round of their pro lightweight fight. De la Rosa got an early takedown and opened up a cut on Goff’s head. Goff got it back to standing where the two had a good exchange before de la Rosa again took Goff down and secured an arm triangle choke at 2:28 of the first. De la Rosa moves to 2-1 as a pro with the win.

The opening pro bout was at 135 lbs and featured two young locals who went the distance in a back-and-forth fight that was a definate crowd-pleaser. Warrior Camp’s Mark Coates was declared the winner over AKA’s Carlos Lozoya by a slim majority decision, two judges seeing it 29-28 for Coates, and the third calling even at 28-28.

In an amateur 190 lb bout, Killian Estes of Post Falls ID picked up a TKO win due to strikes over Shane White Eagle at 2:11 of the first round.

Eatonville MMA’s Matthew Anderson made the long road trip from West of the mountains worthwhile by coming out and blasting Drew Hill for a TKO win at 29 secs in.

Spokane’s Jamal Davis won the opening fight of the night - a 140 lb amateur catchweight bout - by catching Jesse Jacobsen with a triangle choke at 1:07 of the first.

King of the Cage will return to the Coeur d'Alene Casino on May 19th.
Learn more at www.kingofthecage.com.