When Walter “Pops” Carvalho Sr. died on March 23, 2017, his son Wally Carvalho wanted to hold a tribute Toughman show in his honor.
The Toughman Hawaii Association presents a Tribute to Pops welterweight championship tournament, which will be held Nov. 3 at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
The kickboxing event will feature eight competitors competing for the welterweight (141-160 title) as part of a 16-card show.
Carvalho said all proceeds will benefit his mother and Pops’ wife, Barbara. A gofundme.com page was created a year ago to help with medical expenses with a target goal of $65,000, with $4,820 raised.
The mixed martial arts fight game has run into austere times on the local scene, despite the news that Bellator will host a show on Dec. 15 at Neal Blaisdell Center, featuring Punahou graduate Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, the unbeaten flyweight champion.
Because of increased costs, including more than double for insurance, local MMA events on the Big Island or around the state have been infrequent.
The last Toughman event was held November 2012 and drew 700 fans at the Edith Kanakaole Stadium and the last Just Scrap show was held more than a year ago.
“Pops was one of the pioneers when we started Toughman in 2001, and he trained many champions from the Big Island,” Carvalho said. “We’ll eight welterweights, and they may have to fight three times to win the title. We did the same thing back in 2004 when Jay Carter won the middleweight title. He fought three times in one night.”
Carvalho is hoping to secure Dylan Rush to headline a card. In a May 2012 fight against Deutsch Pu‘u, an established K-1 fighter, Rush gained a five-round decision over Pu’u to retain his heavyweight title before 2,000 fans at the Edith Kanaka’ole Stadium.
One anticipated welterweight bout is between Jon Bernard, from God’s Army out of Waianae, vs. Tony “Tiger” Rodrigues, from AP Boxing. Rodrigues is from Waianae but now lives in Hawaiian Beaches.
“They’re 1-1 against each other,” Carvalho said. “This will be the trilogy. Those guys got it on both times they fought.”
One name to watch is Kapono Ige, from Keaau, who played football and basketball for the Cougars. He trains out of Boss MMA at the BJ Penn Training and Fitness Center.
“He’ll be at cruiserweight (181-200 pounds), and he’ a hard-hitting hammer,” Carvalho said.
Carvalho has yet to complete his card and said interested fighters can contact him at 960-4341.