HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Hawaii sports legend Akebono Taro, who made history when he became the first non-Japanese-born sumo wrestler to reach the sport’s highest title, has died. He was 54.

Taro Akebono, the first foreign-born yokozuna and later a mixed martial artist and pro wrestler, died of heart failure in early April at a hospital near Tokyo, according to a source close to him.

Akebono was raised in Hawaii and became the first foreign-born sumo star to reach the level of "yokozuna," or grand champion Akebono Taro, the Hawaiian-born sumo wrestling star and WWE fighter ...