Early career (1980–1983) Alexio debuted as a professional kickboxer in early 1980, losing to Mike King via
technical knockout in
Culver City, California in his freshman appearance. The outcome of the bout was later overturned to a
no contest by the
PKA, however, with the fight deemed a mismatch as Alexio was competing for the first time with no amateur fights or any fighting experience, while King was a Professional Full Contact Karate/Kickboxer. Alexio learned from that fight and trained hard, he went on to win seventeen consecutive fights after that, all by
knockout with only one going past the third round. In his first international match-up, Alexio stopped Basil Gura with a kick in round three of their contest in
Newcastle, New South Wales,
Australia on November 19, 1983. Alexio went by the
ring names "The Menace" and "The Terminator". Alexio disputed the result, calling it a "hometown decision." A second bout between the pair would never come to fruition. Alexio rebounded from this defeat by winning the PKA World Light Heavyweight title in his hometown of Vacaville on September 14, 1984, knocking down Rob Salazar twice in round five en route to a decision win. He made successful defences of this belt against Bernard Clark and Neil Singleton the following year before moving up to the
cruiserweight division where he was soon crowned the
International Sport Karate Association (ISKA) World Cruiserweight (-88.2 kg/194.4 lb) Full Contact Champion. He also briefly pursued a career in
professional boxing between 1984 and 1985, going 5-1 with five KO victories. In an ISKA title defence on August 16, 1986, in
Denver, Colorado, Alexio survived an early scare as he was dropped with a big right
hook from Lowell Nash in the first round, coming back by flooring Nash with a right hook of his own before finishing him with a right
cross at the end of the fourth.
Transition to heavyweight (1987–1991) By 1987, Alexio's record consisted of twenty-six wins and one loss, and so he made the transition to the
heavyweight class where, at 1.80m/5 ft 11in and just over 91 kg/200 lb, he was one of the smaller competitors. After winning the
Karate International Council of Kickboxing (KICK) full contact world heavyweight title, he made one last defence of his ISKA cruiserweight belt on June 3, 1987, when he
outpointed Larry McFadden over twelve rounds in
Stateline, Nevada. Less than a month later, he defended his KICK Heavyweight belt and also won the vacant ISKA Heavyweight (-96.4 kg/212.5 lb) title against Jeff Hollins on June 20, 1987, in Denver. On August 6, 1990, at
Harrah's Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Alexio faced Canadian
taekwondo stylist
Darrell Henegan in a heavyweight unification fight with Alexio's ISKA and KICK titles, and Henegan's Fight Factory Karate Association (FFKA) title on the line. Alexio won via TKO after the referee stopped the fight towards the end of the fifth round. In late 1990, Alexio relocated to
Waianae, Hawaii. Adopting the nickname "Kaheke", Alexio began fighting in a Hawaiian
grass skirt, which, along with his
entrance music of "
The Final Countdown" by Swedish rock band
Europe, became his trademark. Alexio then defeated a number of middle-of-the-road challengers from around the world under full contact before seeking super fights with champions from other
rule sets.
Fights with Cikatić and Longinidis (1992) {{Quote_box On March 16, 1992, Alexio faced his toughest opponent to date when he met Croatian
Muay Thai fighter
Branko Cikatić in at the
World Martial Arts Challenge at the
Thomas & Mack Center in
Las Vegas, Nevada. Although Alexio still held the ISKA, KICK and FFKA heavyweight world titles, and Cikatić was the
World Kickboxing Association (WKA)–
International Kick Boxing Federation (IKBF) World Cruiserweight Champion, the only title on the line was the inaugural World Martial Arts Challenge (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 full contact rules, wanted both fighters to wear foot pads. Cikatić, a Muay Thai stylist and international rules 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 and the clinch were banned. The duration of the fight was set at eight, three-minute rounds. The first two rounds were a battle but Alexio was winning with his barrage of un-answered uppercuts, hooks to the head and body kicks, but Cikatić was game and did fire back. Alexio utilized his better boxing skills but Cikatić used his powerful low kicks to his advantage. Cikatić was docked a point in the second round for kneeing Alexio in the
clinch, which was not legal for this bout. The fight then ended in confusion in the third round when a stoppage was called as Alexio's right foot pad came off. The 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 restarted Alexio hit Cikatić with two left hooks and then kicked at him but missed as he fell to the canvas. The fight was stopped there and, as it had gone less than half of the set eight rounds, was ruled a
technical draw. Following this, Alexio went on to collect three straight KO wins before agreeing to fight Australian
Stan Longinidis, 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,
Victoria on December 6, 1992, with the vacant
ISKA International rules Heavyweight Championship of the World up for grabs. Six seconds into the fight, Longinidis hit Alexio with a right low kick, causing Alexio's
fibula and
tibia to break. Officially, the fight lasted just fifteen seconds and Longinidis was named the winner via technical knockout. Alexio and his manager,
Bob Wall, disputed the fight and claimed that the fracture was caused by Alexio twisting his leg on a depression in the ring floor. Although Wall did initially comment after the fight, that Longinidis clearly won with an excellent legal kick. The outcome of the review was divided: the United States division of the ISKA overturned the ruling to a
no contest, while the WKA and Australian division of the ISKA upheld the original decision. A rematch between Longinidis and Alexio was discussed but never materialized.
Later career (1993–1999) One of kickboxing's biggest stars at the time, Dennis Alexio was offered the opportunity to fight at
UFC 1, the first
mixed martial arts tournament held in North America, in 1993 but declined because of the money and he was still recovering from his broken leg and a screw was sheared off by accident into his leg which complicated his return to the ring. Alexio recovered from his broken leg and made a comeback on January 22, 1994, in Lake Tahoe, where he defeated England's Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion and K-1 Kickboxer Mark Russell Of England via technical knockout in the second round to defend the PKC World Heavyweight Full Contact Karate/Kickboxing title. His first significant fight since his comeback came on March 26, 1994, in
Montreal, Quebec, Canada when he defeated Dick Kimber to defend the PKC belt at
KarateMania VIII. He was ordered by the referee to remove his Hawaiian grass skirt at the end of round one, and came out wearing a pair of traditional kickboxing trunks in round two and battered Kimber to a TKO victory. He would end out his career fighting mostly in Honolulu and under full contact rules, beating a number of
K-1 fighters. During the mid-1990s, he began to face growing criticism of his opponents, with
Rick Roufus and
Maurice Smith claiming that he was avoiding them and other high-level heavyweights, but he has stated on numerous occasions on television that he would take them on but the promoters couldn't get the fighters together with the money or the cable networks and pay per view to televise the fights with the arrival and popularity of the UFC/MMA American Kickboxing viewership was on the decline and the television ratings and Pay per view buys weren't there any longer for the networks to justify those big money fights so they never happened. On May 31, 1997, Alexio won the vacant
International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) World Heavyweight Championship when he defeated European Super Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion
Barrington Patterson, who was often referred to as one of Britain's "hardest men", by TKO at the end of the fifth round in Honolulu. His first defense of this title was on November 21, 1997, when he defeated Jeff Gibson. In May 1998 in
Sacramento, California, he defeated French Kickboxing/Savate Heavyweight Champion Achille Roger of France by TKO in round five to defend his title for a second time. In 1999 he fought
Anthony Elmore and again defended his IKF World Heavyweight title winning by KO in the 12th round. 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. ==Acting appearances==