HILO — Two nights of non-stop kickboxing action begins Friday with the Next Generation Toughman Hawaii Season Finale at Hilo Civic Auditorium. Doors open at 5 p.m. with the show beginning at 6 p.m. and 2 p.m./3 p.m. on Saturday. Fighters from around the globe have made their way to Hilo to compete in what is becoming one of the largest junior international division martial arts competitions in the world.
This two-day season finale features more than 26 students from the No. 1 school in the nation — Hills Training in San Jose, Calif. After talking to head coach Isaiah Hill, he said his squad is ‘taking no prisoners; we are coming for the belts.’
Students from Vegas, Utah and Sacramento have all entered the ‘Hawaii vs. Mainland’ tournament in hopes of taking home divisional titles. All finalists from Oahu, Maui and Molokai have advanced to the finale and are also hoping to become divisional champions.
Some of the high-level coaches that train these young kickboxers are Delbert Grace (Golden Hawaiian) of Grace Academy; Rica and Isaiah Hill from Hills Training (65 active divisional athletes); head coach Martin Day (‘The Spartan’) of Prime Martial Arts (Kailua); Aaron Strap of Elite Training Center in Oahu; ex-fighter Mikey Mitchell of Prodigy Training Center on Oahu; Wayne Perrin of Big Dog Training Center in Mountain View; Duane Amaral of Braddahood Training Center in Puna; Bronson Gambol of the Spirit of the White Robe in Puna and Namakana Pa-Kala One of Molokai Hui.
Adrian Lee, former Pankration World Champion and top-notch ONE Championship fighter, will be present to judge some of these fights and will bring one of his upcoming fighters to make waves in this finale. All of these individuals are putting in the hard work to make these Next Generation fighters’ dreams come true.
Here are a few of the athletes that will be competing for divisional titles — Mila Gambol vs. Jovanna Cortez; Jhayse Gines vs. Maximo Kyle; Elijah Joaquin vs. Zaydon Young; Bethany Geben vs. Shelby Tabios; Kamila Adame vs. Kaya Grace; AJ de Luna vs. Hehiapono Miller; Emilliano Rodriques vs. Keeyan Flores; Capone Sundberg vs. Nowello Miller; La’akolu Miller vs. the winner of the divisional fight on Friday night and much more. These two fight cards feature 15 divisional title fights and 40 total fights.
Over 100 Athletes entered this contest — we won’t get them all on this event, but you can bet when the international students get their travel papers to come to Hawai‘i, Season 3 will be unbelievable.
This show promises to be a powerful two-day event that the entire community will enjoy. We are going to blow the roof off the Civic Auditorium!
For more information or ticket requests, call Stunnah HI at 936-2818.
For specialty ringside seating, call myself at 960-4341.
We’ll see you ringside!
— Walter Carvalho, Special to West Hawaii Today