South Side Boxing Club boxers who will be competing in the Gene Lewis Boxing Tournament this weekend in Mesa, Ariz., pose for a photo in Nante Manangan’s gym at his Kihei home last week. The Maui News / ROBERT COLLIAS photo

KIHEI — The South Side Boxing Club has not been competing — much less taken a trip to the Mainland — in more than two years.

However, a group of nine SSBC fighters, veteran coach Nante Manangan and support staff departed Wednesday for Mesa, Ariz., to participate in the 45th annual Gene Lewis Boxing Tournament that runs Friday through Sunday.

“Yeah, man, it’s been since COVID started, we haven’t done any … no matches in Hawaii, so first trip to this big tournament,” Manangan said last week from a couch on his back lanai, where more than 20 boxing bags, weightlifting equipment and dozens of boxing gloves all sit behind the ring in his garage. “This is our first time to this event. It’s been, like, a few months since we started aiming for this trip. We’ve been kind of looking around for some tournaments to go to.”

Manangan, the chief boxing commissioner for the state of Hawaii, will guide Josh Vergara, 26; Micah Kuamoo, 20; Chance Del Rosario, 17, of Baldwin High School; Etienne Hardy, 17, of Kihei Charter; Kaydrin Visesio-De Le Nux, 16, of Kamehameha Maui; Brayden Nunes, 15, of Kihei Charter; Shailee Lurendez, 14, of Maui High; Aeson Jay Gorospe, 12, of Lokelani Intermediate; and Anthony Farias-Vazquez, 12, of Kihei Charter, at the event.

“These kids are very ready, they have been working hard, running the mountain, the ocean, just extra training,” Manangan said. “It is very important for them because it kind of keeps them active so that they can see that there’s so much more to do outside of Hawaii since there’s nothing going on — in the Mainland right now, it’s wide open.”

Visesio-De La Nux, a 5-foot-4 competitor who will fight at 132 pounds, has been boxing for nine years and is one of the veterans of the group.

“Pretty excited, more nervous,” she said. “I know there’s a lot of good fighters out there. I’m more nervous because I haven’t boxed in about three or four years, but I’m ready.”

Visesio-De La Nux wants to box professionally in the future.

“This kind of trip will help for sure,” she said. “Even if I don’t make it all the way through, just watching everyone and different fighting styles, that will help me.”

She added: “I feel good at this weight. I have those fighting jitters, but that keeps you on your toes.”

Representing Maui “is really important to me because we’re from like a small place and going out to something way bigger and showing that Hawaii is more than just a little dot on the map, that’s big,” she said.

Del Rosario, a Baldwin senior, is 5-foot-6, 125 pounds, and has been boxing competitively for five years.

“I’m very confident because we’ve been working hard for these last months,” Del Rosario said. “I think it’s going to be a good experience to go and see how it is.”

Hardy is a 5-10 Kihei Charter senior who has been boxing for two years — he will fight in the 152-pound class in Mesa. He had two amateur fights before COVID hit, but has not been able to fight officially since.

Like most of the fighters on the trip, he works out at Manangan’s facility five days a week for two hours or more and adds road training and weightlifting at home.

“I’m really looking forward to this and I’m really ready,” Hardy said. “I’m psyched.”

Hardy is grateful that other SSBC competitors will be on the trip.

“I think it’s going to be a great experience with them there,” he said. “It’s not only me, so it’s not like a big pressure thing going on. We’re all there as a team, as a family, so it’ll be pretty cool. This is going to be my first Mainland trip. … I can’t wait to get on the plane.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.