Dennis Raymond Alexio (born March 12, 1959) is an American former kickboxer who competed in the light heavyweight, cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions. Starting out as a light heavyweight, Alexio kicked off his career with an extensive, knockout-laden undefeated streak before losing a decision to Don "The Dragon" Wilson in a WKA World Super Light Heavyweight Full Contact Championship match in 1984. He rebounded from this by winning the PKA World Light Heavyweight title that same year before moving up to cruiserweight and taking the ISKA World Cruiserweight Full Contact strap.
In the late 1980s, he began his transition to the heavyweight division where he won six world titles and was, for a short time, considered the undisputed World Heavyweight Champion. He faced the two toughest tests of his career in 1992 against Branko Cikatić and Stan Longinidis, fighting to a controversial draw with Cikatić and losing to Longinidis via an early low kick KO.
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An aggressive fighter possessing good boxing skills and a powerful spinning back kick to the midsection, Alexio retired with an impressive 92% KO ratio. However, he competed almost exclusively under full contact rules and was criticized for rarely facing top-level competition despite being active throughout heavyweight kickboxing's Golden Age in the 1990s. Wilson, Cikatić and Longinidis are widely believed to have been his only world-class opponents, none of whom he was able to beat
An aggressive fighter possessing good boxing skills and a powerful spinning back kick to the midsection, Alexio retired with an impressive 92% KO ratio. However, he competed almost exclusively under full contact rules and was criticized for rarely facing top-level competition despite being active throughout heavyweight kickboxing's Golden Age in the 1990s. Wilson, Cikatić and Longinidis are widely believed to have been his only world-class opponents, none of whom he was able to beat.
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 refused.[18] Alexio recovered from his broken leg and made a comeback on January 22, 1994 in Lake Tahoe, where he defeated Englishman Mark Russell via technical knockout in the second round to defend the PKC World Heavyweight Full Contact title.[19] 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.[20]
An aggressive fighter possessing good boxing skills and a powerful spinning back kick to the midsection, Alexio retired with an impressive 92% KO ratio. However, he competed almost exclusively under full contact rules and was criticized for rarely facing top-level competition despite being active throughout heavyweight kickboxing's Golden Age in the 1990s. Wilson, Cikatić and Longinidis are widely believed to have been his only world-class opponents, none of whom he was able to beat.
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 refused.[18] Alexio recovered from his broken leg and made a comeback on January 22, 1994 in Lake Tahoe, where he defeated Englishman Mark Russell via technical knockout in the second round to defend the PKC World Heavyweight Full Contact title.[19] 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.[20]
He would end out his career fighting mostly in Honolulu and under full contact rules, beating a number of lower-level 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.[21][22]
On May 31, 1997, Alexio won the vacant IKF World Heavyweight Championship when he defeated Barrington Patterson of England by TKO at the end of the fifth round in Honolulu.[23] His first defense of this title was on November 21, 1997 when he defeated Jeff Gibson. In May 1998 in Sacramento, California, he defeated France's Achille Roger by TKO in round five round to defend his title for a second time.[24] 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.[25]
His last ever fight came on December 18, 1999 at Honolulu's Neal S. Blaisdell Center, where he knocked out Welshman Gordon Minors to win the WAKO Pro World Heavyweight Full Contact Championship, his eight world title.
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