Former Yokozuna Akebono Akebono is a 54-year-old native of Oahu, Hawaii. He stepped onto the dohyo for the first time in the spring tournament in 1985, and together with his rivals who entered the ring at the same time, such as his brothers Wakanohana and Takanohana, who became yokozuna, they excited the ring as the “Flower Rokusan-gumi.”
Standing over 2 meters tall and weighing over 200 kg, he rose through the ranks with his tsuki sumo wrestling, and was promoted to ozeki after the Summer Tournament in 1992.
He won two consecutive tournaments starting with the Kyushu tournament that year and was promoted to the 64th Yokozuna.
This was the first time in history that a foreign-born sumo wrestler was promoted to Yokozuna, and he served as a pioneer for other foreign-born yokozuna such as Musashimaru, Asashoryu, and Hakuho, and won 11 times, ranking 10th in history.
Also, at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, he became a hot topic with his powerful yokozuna dohyo entry at the opening ceremony.
After retiring after his first tournament in 2001, he coached younger wrestlers as a master at Higashi Seki Stable, but retired from the Japan Sumo Association in 2003.
On New Year’s Eve of that year, he participated in the martial arts competition K-1, where he competed against Bob Sapp, who was at the height of his popularity at the time, and attracted a lot of attention. After that, he continued to participate in martial arts and professional wrestling tournaments, and started his own professional wrestling organization.