A fighter with one of the more unique origins in the sport’s history, Chad Rowan, known to most simply as “Akebono,” was once one of the top-ranked Japanese Sumo wrestlers in the world, and the first foreign-born wrestler in history to earn the Japanese Sumo’s Yokozuna rank. After winning his eleventh top division title in November of 2000, Akebono retired from active Sumo competition and entered the K-1 kickboxing and mixed martial arts organization in 2003.

While he did win one MMA fight, a 2005 affair against Nobuaki Kakuda, Akebono lost his other twelve matches, being finished in most of them by notables such as Bob Sapp, Musashi, Remy Bonjasky, Royce Gracie, and Don Frye.

Akebono was once an American citizen born under the name Chad Rowan until he changed his name upon gaining Japanese citizenship in 1996, as required by Japanese law.