Inoue will fight Tom Sauer on April 16 in a 210-pound bout at Blaisdell Arena.

A former racquetball player while growing up in Manoa, Inoue, 36, has lived the past 14 years in Japan. Like his brother, he has become rich and famous as a mixed martial artist fighter.

Enson is featured in Japanese comic books and a PlayStation video game.

"I get noticed wherever I go. Once someone comes up to me, I get mobbed," Inoue said. "I appreciate that. I've never passed up an autograph."

Although his record is 11-8, Inoue gained popularity because of his fighting style.

"They admire the way he loses as much as the way he wins," said Patrick Freitas, marketing director for Super Brawl, which is putting on the April 16 fight.

"Japan is based on the samurai spirit, the way of the samurai," Inoue said. "I've lost four of my last five fights, but I'm going down fighting, punching, kicking, never holding back. The Japanese people love that, the samurai spirit. All my fights, win or lose, are exciting fights."

Exciting and profitable.

"My last fight, I got close to half a million," he said.

He said he hopes to fight until he's 40, or "when my body can't move, when I can't throw a punch, when I can't hold my stamina for over a minute. That's when I know I'm done."

Inoue got involved in mixed martial arts about 16 years ago when he trained under jiu-jitsu Brazilian master Relson Gracie.

But his journey to Japan began with racquetball.

"I went to play racquetball," he said. "Egan won the all-Japan (tournament) and they wanted him back the next year, but because he was so busy being No. 1 in the world, they asked, 'What about your 28th-ranked brother.'

"I said, 'Free trip to Japan,' let's do it. I (had) never seen Japan."

Enson won the Japan tournament, and the organizers wanted to keep him there for seminars.

While in Japan, Inoue had a friend involved in the martial arts style called Shooto.

"The anxiety and fear I felt watching a friend get in the ring was 10 times more than what I ever felt on the racquetball court," Inoue said.

After four years in Japan, during which he helped establish Egan's E-Force racquetball company, Enson was planning to return to Hawai'i. But he said he wanted to get into the ring just once before heading home.

"I felt a desire to experience that fear personally, and wanted to see as a man how I would react to that kind of fear and anxiety. Would I be able to still focus, think straight? So I thought I needed to get into the ring at least once to experience that," he said.

Inoue said "the press and Japanese people took to my style of fighting. Now, it's made my life."

He has since bought a house and resides in Saitama, north of Tokyo. He returns to Hawai'i on occasion, and whenever his brother Egan fights here.

"I come back 2-3 times a year. I'm an Island boy, in and out. It's a rejuvenation, like a battery charger every so often," Inoue said.

Inoue is married to Miyu, a four-time Japanese world wrestling champion. They have a son (Erson), who is being raised in Hawai'i.

When asked who would win in a one-on-one dispute with his wife, Inoue said, "I run out of the house before that happens."