Akebono joined the K-1 fighting organization hesitantly and unexpectedly two years ago.

Now, he can't get enough of it.

"Basically for me, I want to know that I fought the best in the world in any sport," the former sumo grand champion said.

Akebono, who grew up in Waimanalo as Chad Rowan before ascending to the yokozuna rank in sumo, will fight Korean giant Hong-Man Choi in one of the main events of the K-1 World Grand Prix in Hawai'i on Friday at Aloha Stadium.

Akebono retired from sumo in 2001. Two years later, K-1 officials approached him to become a main event fighter in a sport that had little to do with sumo.

"I was training just to exercise and lose weight," Akebono said. "And maybe three to four months after I started working out, K-1 just came to the stable one day and said they were looking for an opponent for Bob Sapp. They came with the contract in hand, so I sat down for a couple of days, weighed my options, and then said yeah."

Sapp is one of the superstars of K-1. Akebono had less than two months to train for his K-1 debut.

"In sumo, it's a totally different game," he said. "You're not in the ring trying to knock your opponent out. In K-1, you're out there to hit with bad intentions."

Sapp defeated Akebono by technical knockout in the first round of the bout, and more than 43,000 fans attended the card at the Nagoya Dome in Japan.

Akebono has been a regular on K-1 cards ever since.

"I felt like I did as much as I could do for the sport (of sumo). And to me, I took the proper channels in leaving the sport as gracefully as possible," he said. "I would have thought that there would be a lot more pressure from Japanese society, but from what I've felt since I went to K-1, yes, they have accepted me. I don't know how they feel really, but when I go out and fight, I still draw big crowds."

Akebono is 36, and said he still has lingering sumo injuries in his knees and back.

But because of his drawing power, he has been thrown into the K-1 ring of fire. His record is 1-6, but he has fought some of the best in the sport, including Sapp, Japanese champion Musashi, American kickboxing champ Rick Roufus, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Royce Gracie.

Akebono said his K-1 losses have been "very frustrating."

"It's not something you can just jump in and expect to be able to do in two months," he said. "It took me a year just to finally be able to stand and fight for three minutes. My record is not something that I look at very seriously. I've had seven fights, but out of my seven fights, I fought the best in K-1."

Faii Falamoe, Akebono's trainer at the Ichigeki Academy in Tokyo, was not a proponent of the K-1 plan for Akebono.

"My choice was for him to start at the bottom, like most new fighters," Falamoe said. "But because his name was a yokozuna, K-1 overruled me and made him fight the top guys."

However, Falamoe said the experience has prepared Akebono for Friday's bout.

It will be a battle of the two largest fighters in the K-1 organization. Akebono is 6 feet 8 and 470 pounds; Choi is listed at 7-2 and 353 pounds.

"A lot of people say I'm big, and I am big," Akebono said. "But what they don't realize is my opponent is a whole lot taller than I am."

Choi defeated Akebono by technical knockout in the semifinals of a tournament in Korea in March.

Akebono won his quarterfinal bout of that tournament, but said he got kicked repeatedly, and was worn down by the time he faced Choi.

"The first fight we had was nothing you can base anything upon," he said. "Basically I went to his backyard to fight him and now he has to come to my hometown and fight me."

It will be Akebono's first fight in Hawai'i.

"It'll be exciting," he said. "There's not going to be any running, no chasing anybody around the ring."

Falamoe said he considers Friday's bout to be Akebono's first true test as a K-1 fighter.

"When he first came, he could throw a punch, and that's about it," Falamoe said. "He's worked on a lot of things since then and now he has a nice jab and a strong right hand. Plus, he has the experience now, so I would say he's finally ready. I don't think he was ready for all his other fights."

NOTES

Friday's card will feature both mixed martial arts and K-1 rules bouts. Mixed martial arts bouts allow for ground grappling as well as stand-up punching and kicking. K-1 bouts allow stand-up punching and kicking only, and the fighters wear standard boxing gloves. The Akebono-Hong-Man Choi bout will follow K-1 rules; another main event featuring Hilo's BJ Penn against Brazil's Renzo Gracie will follow mixed martial arts rules.

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson is expected to be in attendance Friday.