The sport of mixed martial arts is nothing like sumo for former grand champion Akebono.

Korean giant Hong-Man Choi defeated Akebono by knockout last night in one of the "Super Fights" of the K-1 World Grand Prix in Hawai'i.

A crowd of around 12,000 stayed past midnight to watch the first mixed martial arts event ever staged at Aloha Stadium.

The main event — Hilo's BJ Penn against Brazil's Renzo Gracie — and the final of the eight-man heavyweight tournament were staged after The Advertiser's deadline last night.

Choi, who is 7 feet 2 and 353 pounds, landed several unanswered punches to Akebono's head throughout the first round. Akebono, who is 6-8 and 470 pounds, was knocked to the canvas twice in the first round.

After the second knockdown, the referee stopped the bout and awarded the victory to Choi. It was the second time this year that Choi has defeated Akebono.

Choi improved to 4-0. Akebono, who was raised as Chad Rowan in Waimanalo, dropped to 1-7.

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was in attendance last night, and Choi pointed to Tyson after the bout asking for a challenge.

Hawai'i fighters Wesley "Cabbage" Correira and Scott Junk were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the heavyweight tournament.

Canada's Gary Goodridge defeated Hilo's Correira by technical knockout in the first quarterfinal of the tournament. Correira stumbled to the canvas late in the first round after taking repeated kicks to his legs from Goodridge. The referee stopped the bout 2 minutes, 26 seconds into the first round.

In another quarterfinal, Japan's Yusuke Fujimoto beat Kailua's Junk by knockout in the third round. The first two rounds were close, but Fujimoto dropped Junk with a right hand to the head, 1:20 into the first round.

Goodridge and Fujimoto also won their respective semifinal bouts, and were scheduled to meet in the final.

Crowd favorite Eric "Butterbean" Esch of Alabama won his quarterfinal bout over Marcus Royster, but sustained an injury to his left leg and could not fight in the semifinals.

Royster was allowed to fight in the semifinals, but he got knocked out by Fujimoto.

In the first Super Fight of the night, Japanese champion Musashi defeated Sweden's Rickard Nordstrand by majority decision in a heavyweight bout.

Musashi landed several hard punches and kicks, but there were no knockdowns in the three-round fight. Musashi improved to 40-20-5; Nordstrand dropped to 16-6.

Musashi started slow and picked it up midway through the second round. He connected with a combination to the head and a jarring kick to the body, but Nordstrand countered with a straight left.

Nordstrand tried to keep the southpaw off balance by changing his fighting stance throughout the bout. It didn't seem to bother Musashi, who patiently waited for openings to punch and kick.