Dennis Alexio
Encyclopedia
Dennis Raymond Alexio is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 former kickboxer. He was world champion as a light heavyweight
Light heavyweight
In boxing, the light heavyweight is a weight division above 168 pounds [12 Stone or 76.204 kilograms] and up to 175 pounds [12.5 stone or 79.38 kilograms]), falling between super middleweight and cruiserweight...

 and cruiserweight
Cruiserweight
Cruiserweight is a weight class in boxing between light heavyweight and heavyweight. Before the advent of the current cruiserweight class, "light heavyweight" and "cruiserweight" were sometimes used interchangeably in the United Kingdom....

 before moving up to heavyweight
Heavyweight
Heavyweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Fighters who weigh over 200 pounds are considered heavyweights by the major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, and the World Boxing...

 where, for a short time, he became the undisputed
Undisputed Champion
In professional boxing, the undisputed champion of a weight class is a boxer who is recognized as the world champion at that class by each boxing organization.-History:...

 World Heavyweight Champion. He held titles for all the major kickboxing associations (PKA
Professional Karate Association
The Professional Karate Association was originally a martial arts sanctioning organization, now transformed into a martial arts promotion company....

, IKF
International Kickboxing Federation
The International Kickboxing Federation is a kickboxing sanctioning body. The IKF World Headquarters in the USA oversees IKF World Operations with the rest of the IKF World Team.-Styles:...

, ISKA
International Sport Karate Association
The International Sport Karate Association is one of the major international bodies regulating karate and kickboxing matches, and is based in the United States...

, KICK
Karate International Council of Kickboxing
The Karate International Council of Kickboxing is a sanctioning body that regulates kickboxing matches. It is considered among the more prestigious organizations that sanction professional kickboxing.-Early years:...

 and WKA
World Kickboxing Association
The World Kickboxing Association is one of the oldest and the largest amateur and professional sanctioning organizations of kickboxing in the world for the sport. Its official name is "World Kickboxing and Karate Association"....

), and was known for his good boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 skills and powerful spinning back kick to the mid-section. He was never knocked out
Knockout
A knockout is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, Karate and others sports involving striking...

 in his career.

However, he competed almost exclusively under American kickboxing
American kickboxing
American Kickboxing, also known as Full-Contact Kickboxing or American Full Contact Karate, is a combat sport and a style of kickboxing in which two opponents of similar weight fight each other using full contact strikes with their fists and feet to attack the opponent, while keeping similar rules...

 rules and was criticized for rarely facing top-level competition. Critics believe he faced world-class opponents on only three occasions (Don "The Dragon" Wilson in 1984, and Branko Cikatić
Branko Cikatic
Branko "The Croatian Tiger" Cikatić is a Croatian former heavyweight kickboxer, the first Croatian born fighter to achieve international success...

 and Stan Longinidis
Stan Longinidis
Stan "The Man" Longinidis is a retired Australian Heavyweight kickboxer and 8 time Kickboxing World Champion. Born in Australia of Greek ethnicity, Longinidis is one of the few fighters to have won World titles in three different styles, International Rules Kickboxing, Full Contact and Muay Thai,...

 in 1992), none of whom he was able to beat.

Early life and career

Alexio was born and raised in Vacaville, California
Vacaville, California
Vacaville, California is a city located in the northeastern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area in Solano County. The city is nearly half way between Sacramento and San Francisco on I-80. It sits approximately from Sacramento, and from San Francisco...

 and was a standout athlete in his youth, excelling in American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

. In an interview with Inside Karate magazine, he claimed to have turned down an offer to play baseball with the Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...

. He began his martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....

 training in Kajukenbo
Kajukenbo
Kajukenbo is a hybrid martial art that combines Western Boxing, Judo, Jujutsu, Kenpo Karate, Eskrima, Tang Soo Do, and Kung Fu. It was founded in 1947 in Oahu, Hawaii, at the Palama Settlement. The original purpose of the art was to deal with local crime and to help the people defend themselves...

 before moving on to kickboxing
Kickboxing
Kickboxing refers to a group of martial arts and stand-up combat sports based on kicking and punching, historically developed from karate, Muay Thai and western boxing....

.

The first defeat of his career came on March 29, 1984 when he lost a decision to Don "The Dragon" Wilson in a light heavyweight
Light heavyweight
In boxing, the light heavyweight is a weight division above 168 pounds [12 Stone or 76.204 kilograms] and up to 175 pounds [12.5 stone or 79.38 kilograms]), falling between super middleweight and cruiserweight...

 bout in Wilson's home state of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. The fight was for the inaugural WKA
World Kickboxing Association
The World Kickboxing Association is one of the oldest and the largest amateur and professional sanctioning organizations of kickboxing in the world for the sport. Its official name is "World Kickboxing and Karate Association"....

 full-contact super light-heavyweight (-83.2 kg) world title, and was televised on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's Sports World. Alexio disputed the result, however, calling it a "hometown decision" and demanding a rematch. A second bout between the pair would never come to fruition, however, as Alexio soon moved up in weight to compete as a cruiserweight
Cruiserweight
Cruiserweight is a weight class in boxing between light heavyweight and heavyweight. Before the advent of the current cruiserweight class, "light heavyweight" and "cruiserweight" were sometimes used interchangeably in the United Kingdom....

 and heavyweight
Heavyweight
Heavyweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Fighters who weigh over 200 pounds are considered heavyweights by the major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, and the World Boxing...

.

Before moving up in weight class, Alexio was still able to become world champion at light heavyweight, beating Rob Salazar for the PKA
Professional Karate Association
The Professional Karate Association was originally a martial arts sanctioning organization, now transformed into a martial arts promotion company....

 World Light Heavyweight Championship in his hometown of Vacaville on September 14, 1984. By June 1987, Alexio's record consisted of 35 wins and 1 loss, and he held the KICK
Karate International Council of Kickboxing
The Karate International Council of Kickboxing is a sanctioning body that regulates kickboxing matches. It is considered among the more prestigious organizations that sanction professional kickboxing.-Early years:...

 World Heavyweight Championship as well as the ISKA
International Sport Karate Association
The International Sport Karate Association is one of the major international bodies regulating karate and kickboxing matches, and is based in the United States...

 World Cruiserweight Championship.

He defended his KICK Heavyweight belt and also won the vacant ISKA Heavyweight title against Jeff Hollins on June 20, 1987 in Inglewood, California
Inglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...

. Less than a month later, on July 7, Alexio won a 12-round decision over Larry McFadden to retain his ISKA World Cruiserweight Championship in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

.

In 1988, Alexio began being trained by Florida kickboxer turned actor Harold Diamond (aka Harold "Nature Boy" Roth). He eventually re-located to Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...

 and moved up to heavyweight permanently. He fought twenty times at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center
Neal S. Blaisdell Center
The Neal S. Blaisdell Center in downtown Honolulu, Honolulu CDP is a community center for the City & County of Honolulu. Constructed in 1964 on the historic Ward Estate and originally called the Hawaii International Center, the center was renamed after Mayor of Honolulu Neal S. Blaisdell...

 in Honolulu, winning all twenty by knockout.

On August 6, 1990 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, Alexio faced Canadian taekwondo
Taekwondo
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...

 fighter Darrell Henegan
Darrell Henegan
Darrell Henegan is a former Canadian Taekwondo practitioner and kickboxer.-Taekwondo:Henegan's Taekwondo career spanned the years 1979-2001. During that time he won numerous awards in four different decades. They included Canadian, Pan American, and North American Championships, as well as...

 in a heavyweight unification fight with Alexio's ISKA and KICK titles, and Henegan's FFKA title on the line. Alexio won via technical knockout after the referee stopped the fight towards the end of the fifth round.

Alexio vs. Cikatić

On March 16, 1992, Alexio faced his toughest opponent to date when he met Croatian Muay Thai
Muay Thai
Muay Thai is a combat sport from Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. It is similar to other Indochinese kickboxing systems, namely pradal serey from Cambodia, tomoi from Malaysia, lethwei from Myanmar and muay Lao from Laos...

 fighter Branko Cikatić
Branko Cikatic
Branko "The Croatian Tiger" Cikatić is a Croatian former heavyweight kickboxer, the first Croatian born fighter to achieve international success...

 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Although Alexio still held the ISKA
International Sport Karate Association
The International Sport Karate Association is one of the major international bodies regulating karate and kickboxing matches, and is based in the United States...

, KICK
Karate International Council of Kickboxing
The Karate International Council of Kickboxing is a sanctioning body that regulates kickboxing matches. It is considered among the more prestigious organizations that sanction professional kickboxing.-Early years:...

 and FFKA Heavyweight World tiltes, and Cikatić was the WKA
World Kickboxing Association
The World Kickboxing Association is one of the oldest and the largest amateur and professional sanctioning organizations of kickboxing in the world for the sport. Its official name is "World Kickboxing and Karate Association"....

/IKBF World Cruiserweight Champion, the only title on the line was the vacant WMAC Heavyweight Championship.

The rules of the bout were disputed between both fighters right up to the day of the fight. Alexio, who had competed exclusively under American kickboxing
American kickboxing
American Kickboxing, also known as Full-Contact Kickboxing or American Full Contact Karate, is a combat sport and a style of kickboxing in which two opponents of similar weight fight each other using full contact strikes with their fists and feet to attack the opponent, while keeping similar rules...

 rules, wanted both fighters to wear foot pads and low kicks to be illegal. Cikatić, a Muay Thai fighter, wanted low kicks as well as the Thai clinch to be allowed. In the end, low kicks were allowed and Alexio wore foot pads, and knees
Knee (strike)
A knee strike is a strike with the knee, either with the kneecap or the surrounding area. Kneeing is a disallowed practice in many combat sports, especially to the head of a downed opponent...

 and the clinch were banned. The duration of the fight was set at eight, three-minute rounds.

The first two rounds were close, with Alexio utilising better boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 skills but Cikatić using his powerful low kicks to his advantage. Cikatić was deducted a point in the second round for kneeing Alexio in the clinch. The fight then ended in confusion in the third round when a stoppage was called as Alexio's right foot pad came off. Referee Pat Burleson decided to continue the fight without retrieving the foot pad as it had fallen out of the ring. However, before the fight was re-started Alexio hit Cikatić with two left hooks and then kicked him as he fell to the floor. The fight was stopped there and, as it had gone less that half of the set eight rounds, was ruled a technical draw.

Alexio vs. Longinidis

Following this, Alexio went on to collect four straight wins before agreeing to fight Australian Stan Longinidis
Stan Longinidis
Stan "The Man" Longinidis is a retired Australian Heavyweight kickboxer and 8 time Kickboxing World Champion. Born in Australia of Greek ethnicity, Longinidis is one of the few fighters to have won World titles in three different styles, International Rules Kickboxing, Full Contact and Muay Thai,...

, an up-and-coming fighter who had been calling him out for some time. One of the most highly-anticipated fights in the sport's history at the time, and a bad-blooded affair, the bout took place in Longinidis' hometown of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

 on December 6, 1992 with the vacant ISKA
International Sport Karate Association
The International Sport Karate Association is one of the major international bodies regulating karate and kickboxing matches, and is based in the United States...

 (Oriental rules
Japanese kickboxing
Japanese kickboxing is combat sport created by the Japanese boxing promoter Osamu Noguchi and Karate practitioner Tatsuo Yamada. It was the first combat sport that adopted the name of "kickboxing" in 1966...

) Heavyweight Championship of the World up for grabs.

Six seconds into the fight, Longinidis hit Alexio with a left low kick, causing Alexio's fibula and tibia
Tibia
The tibia , shinbone, or shankbone is the larger and stronger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates , and connects the knee with the ankle bones....

 to break. Officially, the fight lasted just fifteen seconds and Longinidis was named the winner via technical knockout.

Alexio and his manager, Bob Wall
Robert Wall
Robert Alan "Bob" Wall is an American actor and martial artist.- Biography :Wall is a former heavyweight world-champion kickboxer. He is featured in a number of films, most notably three appearances with martial arts master Bruce Lee. Bob Wall appeared in the film Way of the Dragon with Lee,...

, disputed the fight and claimed that the fracture was caused by twisting his leg on a depression in the ring floor. A rematch between Longinidis and Alexio was discussed but a promoter with enough money was never secured.

Later career

Alexio recovered from his broken leg and made his comeback on January 22, 1994 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where he defeated Englishman Mark Russell via technical knockout in the second round. During the mid-1990s, Alexio began to face growing criticism of his opponents, with Rick Roufus
Rick Roufus
Rick Roufus is an American kickboxer, fighting out of The MMA Lab in Phoenix, Arizona. He is one of the most famous kickboxers in the United States, and has also competed in boxing and mixed martial arts...

 and Maurice Smith claiming that he was avoiding them and other high-level heavyweights.

His first significant fight since his comeback came on March 26, 1994 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 when he defeated Dick Kimber by second-round TKO to win the PKC World Heavyweight Championship.

On May 31, 1997, Alexio won the vacant IKF
International Kickboxing Federation
The International Kickboxing Federation is a kickboxing sanctioning body. The IKF World Headquarters in the USA oversees IKF World Operations with the rest of the IKF World Team.-Styles:...

 World Heavyweight Championship when he defeated Barrington Patterson
Barrington Patterson
Barrington Renford Patterson is an English former kickboxer and mixed martial artist. At 18 stones, he competed in the super heavyweight division and was a world IKF Kickboxing Champion...

 of England by TKO at the end of the fifth round in Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...

. His first defense of this title was on November 21, 1997 when he defeated Jeff Gibson. In May 1998 in Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...

, he defeated France's Achille Roger by TKO in round five round to defend his title for a second time. His title was retired by the IKF on November 24, 2003. The IKF organization had been trying to contact Alexio since June 2003, to discuss what his future plans for the sport were, such as a title defense or a retirement of his title. However, they never received any return phone call.

His last ever fight came on December 18, 1999 at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center
Neal S. Blaisdell Center
The Neal S. Blaisdell Center in downtown Honolulu, Honolulu CDP is a community center for the City & County of Honolulu. Constructed in 1964 on the historic Ward Estate and originally called the Hawaii International Center, the center was renamed after Mayor of Honolulu Neal S. Blaisdell...

 in Honolulu, where he knocked out Welshman Gordon Minors to win the WAKO
World Association of Kickboxing Organizations
The World Association of Kickboxing Organisations is one the international organization of kickboxing, and the governing body of Amateur kickboxing sport certified by SportAccord...

 World Heavyweight Championship.

Personal life

Alexio starred alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg , professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor, best known for his martial arts action films, the most successful of which include Bloodsport , Kickboxer , Double Impact , Universal Soldier , Hard Target , Timecop ,...

 in the 1989 film Kickboxer
Kickboxer (film)
Kickboxer is a 1989 martial arts film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and former world Kickboxing champion, Dennis Alexio. Like Van Damme's previous film, Bloodsport, it showcases Van Damme's martial arts fighting abilities...

.

Alexio was charged with two counts of bank fraud in addition to failing to pay child support on July 1, 2003. On December 20, 2005, a federal magistrate ordered that he be detained and returned to California.

On June 12, 2007, Alexio was arrested at his home in Aiea, Hawaii for failing to appear as a witness before a federal grand jury and on a outstanding federal warrant issued in San Francisco for bank fraud. A federal judge in West Virginia had issued a warrant for his arrest on April 20 when he failed to appear as summoned to testify in a fraud case.

Titles

  • Fight Factory Karate Association
    • FFKA World Heavyweight Championship (full-contact)

  • International Kickboxing Federation
    International Kickboxing Federation
    The International Kickboxing Federation is a kickboxing sanctioning body. The IKF World Headquarters in the USA oversees IKF World Operations with the rest of the IKF World Team.-Styles:...

    • IKF
      International Kickboxing Federation
      The International Kickboxing Federation is a kickboxing sanctioning body. The IKF World Headquarters in the USA oversees IKF World Operations with the rest of the IKF World Team.-Styles:...

       World Heavyweight Championship (full-contact)

  • International Sport Karate Association
    International Sport Karate Association
    The International Sport Karate Association is one of the major international bodies regulating karate and kickboxing matches, and is based in the United States...

    • ISKA
      International Sport Karate Association
      The International Sport Karate Association is one of the major international bodies regulating karate and kickboxing matches, and is based in the United States...

       World Cruiserweight Championship (full-contact)
    • ISKA
      International Sport Karate Association
      The International Sport Karate Association is one of the major international bodies regulating karate and kickboxing matches, and is based in the United States...

       World Heavyweight Championship (full-contact)

  • Karate International Council of Kickboxing
    Karate International Council of Kickboxing
    The Karate International Council of Kickboxing is a sanctioning body that regulates kickboxing matches. It is considered among the more prestigious organizations that sanction professional kickboxing.-Early years:...

    • KICK
      Karate International Council of Kickboxing
      The Karate International Council of Kickboxing is a sanctioning body that regulates kickboxing matches. It is considered among the more prestigious organizations that sanction professional kickboxing.-Early years:...

       World Heavyweight Championship (full-contact)

  • Professional Karate Association
    Professional Karate Association
    The Professional Karate Association was originally a martial arts sanctioning organization, now transformed into a martial arts promotion company....

    • PKA
      Professional Karate Association
      The Professional Karate Association was originally a martial arts sanctioning organization, now transformed into a martial arts promotion company....

       World Light Heavyweight Championship (full-contact)

  • Professional Kickboxing Council
    • PKC World Heavyweight Championship (full-contact)

  • World Association of Kickboxing Organizations
    World Association of Kickboxing Organizations
    The World Association of Kickboxing Organisations is one the international organization of kickboxing, and the governing body of Amateur kickboxing sport certified by SportAccord...

    • WAKO
      World Association of Kickboxing Organizations
      The World Association of Kickboxing Organisations is one the international organization of kickboxing, and the governing body of Amateur kickboxing sport certified by SportAccord...

      World Heavyweight Championship (full-contact)

Kickboxing record

Kickboxing record

Legend:


Boxing record

Boxing record

Legend:

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