Toughman Hawaii saves best for last

The Toughman Hawaii kickboxing tournament is saving its best for last — a survival of the fittest or, in relative terms, a best chin test that has promoter Wally Carvalho Jr. sounding somewhat like Charles Darwin.

The Toughman’s season finale Saturday at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium in Hilo will feature the hometown’s finest against some good, tough lads from Oahu’s rugged coast of Waianae, where fighters grow tall and strong from kicking and boxing against coconut trees.

In one of the headline bouts, Hilo’s own Riquo Abadilla, undefeated in Toughman, will test his mettle and the strength of his chin and coconut against the hard-hitting thunder of Chad Pavao, formerly of Hilo and now residing on the Leeward coast.

The golden carrot on the stick for each is the Toughman 130-pound junior lightweight title — a belt if Darwin (1839-82) were still alive as a ring announcer would certainly proclaim, “Art thou, no man of steel jaw and grand survival shall be deemed a more compensated Toughman than you, good sir.”

With the territorial rights neutralized, the old plotline of protagonist and antagonist goes out the window; there will likely be cheers, roars and groans all around when either fighter plucks the other or gives as good as he gets.

Late in the afternoon in his cabin near the seashore, Carvalho was drawing up his 20-card lineup of throwing pairs of fighting fish into the same Hilo Civic bowl, all the while salivating at the intriguing matchups.

When motivated by the anticipation of a potential packed house witnessing entertaining fighting carnage of epic local proportions, Carvalho turns to his trademark “No doubt” tagline to punctuate his sentiments, a natural byproduct of sheer fulfillment — like a burp after a good meal and a swig of beer.

“Riquo is an outstanding kickboxer, very fast and very elusive. He moves around very well and throws great combinations,” he said. “He’s 4-0 in Toughman. He’s an all-around outstanding kickboxer, no doubt.”

The dubious yet ingenious job of any promoter worth his weight in tokens is to drum up interest in the other guy, too, even if he is expected to take a beating, tomato-can or coconut-cracking style; by all accounts from the Toughman promoter Pavao won’t be subject to either.

Quite the opposite. And should Pavao require a boost in morale support he’ll be well received in such manner from the good folks of his family tree.

“This kid’s phenomenal in fighting and kickboxing. He’s been in martial arts his whole life,” Carvalho said. “His family is from here. He’ll have a lot of family coming to watch him fight. He’s won several kickboxing championships on Oahu.

“He comes from the West Oahu MMA club, where Yancy Medeiros of Strikeforce trains at. His coach is ‘Big’ Doug Amaral.

“Chad and Riquo do the same, both kickboxing and MMA (mixed martial arts). They’ve both won titles and are better kickboxers. This fight will definitely prove who’s the better stand-up fighter. That’s their expertise. We’ll see who survives, and I guarantee it’s going to be banging, no doubt.”

Another bumping of the noggins to keep an eye on is the engagement between Kona’s Dillon Fillekes and Waianae’s Arnold Berndon, who throws 2-inch nails into his breakfast bowl of Wheaties to increase his iron chin.

The two are climbing the mountain for the Toughman’s 160-pound welterweight division’s No. 1 seed. It’s a vacant title. The winner kicks the loser to the curb.

“Arnold grew up in Hilo, and he’s another kickboxing champion. He’s very elusive, moves well, punches very hard and is very energetic, like the Energizer Bunny,” said Carvalho, who had an equal amount of confetti for his opponent. “Fillekes trains at Average Joes in Kona. He’s a straight brawler. He’s comes straight forward. There’s no reverse. He’s a muscle-bound haole kid. He can just bang. I’m expecting nothing but fireworks between the two, no doubt.”