“RIP Akebono [Taro]” – MMA World Mourns the Demise of First Foreign Born Sumo Champion at 54

The MMA and combat sports world in general recently lost one of the most legendary sumo wrestlers, Akebono Taro. The first American-born Yokozuna recently passed away at the age of 54 due to congestive heart failure. With the news of his passing, many fans shared their reactions and offered their condolences across multiple social media platforms.

Born in Hawaii, Akebono Taro was a well-known name in sumo wrestling. At a time when the sport was about to fade away into obscurity, he became the reason for its revival and growth in popularity. Not only that, Taro also competed in kickboxing matches, which did not turn out as he had expected as he was able to rack up only a 1-10 record. However, he did fight famous mixed martial artist Bob Sapp twice. When it comes his Taro’s MMA career, he fought legends like Royce Gracie and Don Frye but remained winless with a total of 4 fights.

The American-born Japanese sumo legend was also involved in a one-off WWE program. The pro wrestling giants put Akebono Taro in a storyline with WWE legend The Big Show as they competed in the last and only WWE sumo match at WrestleMania 21. He competed in other wrestling promotions as well, especially in All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Many notable MMA journalists like Marc Raimondi and even former Bellator president Scott Coker took to social media to break the news and pay tribute to Akebono Taro. Moreover, fans also chimed in and joined the aforementioned personalities in the MMA sphere to mourn the sumo legend’s death.

MMA community remembers Akebono Taro

The fans who commented on Scott Coker’s tweet were not expecting to hear the news of Akebono Taro’s untimely passing. They poured their heart in while remembering the sumo and martial arts legend. They even reminisced about the time when Taro fought Rick Roufus in 2004.

“RIP”

“I just tweeted about when he fought Rick Roufus for us in Vegas.”

Moving over to fans on Instagram, they spoke about his legendary status and how he competed in kickboxing matches for K1, even though he did not have a great record. They claimed that Akebono Taro was still in their memories for his contributions to various combat sports disciplines and called him ‘ohana’, which means ‘family’ in Hawaiian terminology.

“Akibono u b great me missed Much love in alohaz You will be forever in our hearts.”

“What a legend. Saw him in the K1”

“Condolences to the ohana, Rip akebono”

Although Akebono Taro did not make much of an impact in MMA and kickboxing, he did dominate the world of sumo, as we all know, and also professional wrestling. All in all, the fans hope that Akebono can find peace as he breathed his last on 12th April.

“I remember watching him dominate when I was a kid”

“Fly free Akebono”

There may never be a sumo wrestler with as big of a personality as Akebono Taro, who had been in the combat sports world for almost three decades. He may not have been able to replicate the same level of success in his other endeavors as he did in sumo wrestling, but his eight-year-long reign from 1993 to 2001 as yokozuna is one accolade that will be remembered for years to come.