Waianae parade to celebrate 2 UFC conquerors

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS

UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway, right, and UFC welterweight fighter Yancy Medeiros, left, will be honored with a parade today in their hometown of Waianae.

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Thousands of Waianae Coast residents are expected to come out in full force today to celebrate their hometown heroes — UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway and welterweight Yancy Medeiros.

The Waianae Coast Community Foundation, the city and residents are hosting a “Parade of Champions” at 10 a.m. followed by an autograph signing ceremony and paina. The parade along Farrington Highway will start at the PVT Land Co. landfill, 87-2020 Farrington Highway, in Nanakuli and end at Waianae High School, 85-251 Farrington Highway. Festivities are expected to end at 2:30 p.m.

The autograph signing and paina will be held at Waianae High’s football field, and several elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, City Councilwoman Kymberly Pine and state Reps. Andria Tupola and Cedric Gates, are expected to attend.

Patty Teruya, president and director of the Waianae Coast Community Foundation, said residents are encouraged to come out to Farrington Highway and cheer on Holloway and Medeiros. She said the parade was planned in just a few days and generated overwhelming community support from volunteers, businesses and residents, who pitched in to help.

“They’re very proud, and that … is what you call community pride,” she said. “We want to showcase this community.”

Pine, who represents the Leeward Coast, said they planned for up to 5,000 people along the parade route and that there will be special-duty police officers who will help with crowd control. She added, “It was just something that the community felt that we should do because this is such a rare event to have two world champions from Waianae.”

About 300 people greeted Holloway and Medeiros at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on Monday after they flew 18 hours from Rio de Janeiro.

Holloway had said after arriving at the airport that “it feels great” to be home and that “being from Waianae, a place where too many people don’t want to venture … and me and my boy Yancy get to bring something good back just proves that, not only from Waianae, not only from Hawaii, anywhere, you can be anybody in this world.”