T. Jay Thompson wants to bring the mixed martial arts craze back to Hawai'i.

So who better to help him out than Jason "Mayhem" Miller?

The ever-ebullient Miller proved that he is still a showman when it comes to press conferences.

"I left for a little bit to go and do some Hollywood stuff and all of a sudden I'm not Hawaiian anymore?" Miller said to reporters at 808 Oceans Nightclub yesterday. "I may not have a house here, I may not have grown up here as a baby, but I feel like I have roots here. I'm from the 'aina. Don't be bringing that local boy versus Mainland guy thing to this. It's going to be two bruddahs in there scrapping."

Whether Miller is still a show-stopper in the ring will be put to the test next month when he takes on Wai'anae's Kala Kolohe Hose in the main event of the debut card for the Kingdom MMA organization. The card is scheduled for April 3 at the Blaisdell Center Arena.

Kingdom is the creation of Thompson, a veteran promoter who ignited the MMA craze in Hawai'i with his SuperBrawl and Icon Sport shows.

"As far as myself and this promotion is concerned, MMA in Hawai'i is on the line with this fight," Thompson said. "This is a great main event with a great story, but these are tough economic times, as everybody knows. I'd love to say that we're back and we're going to sell out the place, but I really don't know. I know this, it's been too long that we've had a fight like this at the Blaisdell so I'm excited."

Miller has not fought in Hawai'i since December 2006. He started in the Icon Sport organization as an undercard fighter, then won the favor of Hawai'i fans with victories over Hawai'i favorites Egan Inoue, Falaniko Vitale, Ronald Jhun and Mark Moreno.

It helps that he has a demeanor to match his nickname.

"I said it before a million times, I'll fight my mom if you paid me the right amount of money," Miller said.

Miller left the Icon Sport organization and fought in Japan last year. But after a loss in June he went into a self-described retirement to pursue a television career.

He will be the host of a reality show called "Bully Beatdown," which is scheduled to debut March 22 on MTV.

He said he decided to return to MMA once he got the call from Thompson.

"If this fight wasn't in Hawai'i, I don't know if I'd be doing it," said Miller, 28. "This is the place where I grew into a man. I hope to turn this into something where I can fight here again and again, like I did before."

In truth, he is stepping onto Hose's turf.

Hose was the last middleweight (185 pounds) champion of the Icon Sport organization (which subsequently ran into financial problems after it was purchased by the California-based ProElite organization).

Thompson said the April 3 bout will be for the Kingdom MMA middleweight championship.

"I see this as a natural flow from SuperBrawl to Icon and now to Kingdom," Thompson said. "Kala was the Icon champ, Mayhem is a former champ. It's one a lot of people want to see."

Miller and Hose actually have friendly ties. Hose's sister once trained at the same gym as Miller in Las Vegas. Even when Miller took verbal jabs at Hose during the press conference, Hose laughed out loud.

"We hung out couple times; he's funny, as you can see," Hose said. "But once we're in the ring, it's all business."

Tickets — ranging from $15 to $150 — are available at the Blaisdell box office.

NOTES

Three Hawai'i fighters will be fighting on other cards this weekend:

Maui's Kendall Grove will face Canada's Jason Day in a middleweight bout on the undercard of UFC 96 in Columbus, Ohio.

On the same undercard, Hilo's Shane Nelson will face Aaron Riley of Washington in a lightweight bout.

On Sunday, Hilo's Ross Ebanez will face Japan's Tatsuya Kawajiri in a featured lightweight bout at the Dream.7 card in Saitama, Japan. Kawajiri is considered one of the top 10 lightweight fighters in the world.