Alexio debuted as a professional kickboxer in early 1980, losing to Mike King via technical knockout in Culver City, California in his freshman appearance.
[citation needed] 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.
[6] 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.
[9] 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.
[10] 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[broken anchor].
He oozed charisma and it wasn't hard to see why he had been offered several more silver screen roles and developed the biggest following in kickboxing history – especially among female fans."
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.
[11] 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.
[12] 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.
[13] 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[broken anchor] Heavyweight Championship of the World up for grabs.
[23] 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.
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.
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.
[34] A federal judge in West Virginia had issued a warrant for his arrest on April 20, 2007 when he failed to appear as summoned to testify in a fraud case.
The couple was charged with 36 counts of filing false tax claims, wire fraud and money laundering from December 2008 to August 2013.
The federal government also accused him of sending false documents to obtain gold bars and coins worth hundreds of thousands of U.S.
[41] On January 22, 2016, Alexio was found guilty on 28 counts, including tax fraud, theft, money laundering and using false and fictitious financial instruments.