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‘All the way’ LIHUE, Kauai -- Kenneth Oki's high-performance brain is flourishing in the solitude of the midnight shift at his midtown diner. "What I do is flood my mind by reading," the Kalihi-born former professional boxer with Mensa-level intelligence said. "I figure with all that input, I should be able to put something out."
Whether he's working at his Kauai
diner, devouring books or coaching
boxers, Kenneth Oki always
comes out a winnerBy Rod Ohira
Star-BulletinHis thoughts usually favor boxing or writing goals but occasionally, they'll drift into something like auto repair.
"I want to coach a boxer, like an Oscar De La Hoya, that goes all the way," said Oki, who spends three to four hours a day, five times a week coaching a handful of amateurs at the Armory's Westside Club gym in Hanapepe.
"Or maybe I can write a novel that will go all the way. I'm taking Journalism 205 at Kauai Community College."You know I'm trying to fix up a '70 Nova that I bought for $250. Maybe it'll go all the way. I'm going to take an automotive course so I can try to repair our cars to save money."
Oki is a sensitive, humble, heavyset man with a slightly bent posture and wonderful sense of humor who seems to have dedicated his life to accomplishing physically what he can do so easily intellectually.
As he approaches age 60, Oki is still an original thinker unafraid to take on challenges.
"You have wannabes and has-beens," he said. "In my mind, I'm a could be."
Twenty years ago, Oki was nearing the end of his five-fight professional boxing career, which started remarkably late at age 33.
An April 1980 Star-Bulletin headline proclaimed him as "The Fighter with the Powerhouse IQ."Only a portion of the story under an accompanying photo of Oki throwing a punch at Carl Poff is displayed on a wall near the cash register of Oki Diner and Bakery at 3125 Kuhio Highway.
The preserved section is all about his boxing, not his membership in the exclusive, high-IQ Mensa Society.
Having waited until he was 23 to begin boxing, Oki simply ran out of time to fulfill his goal of being a contender. He was basically a brawler with a go-for-broke style in the ring.
Discipline and focus
Since retiring at the Hawaii mandatory age of 39 for pro boxers, Oki has acquired hundreds of major fight videos.He plays them nightly, often falling asleep after watching a few rounds. He'll pick up where he left off and watch another couple rounds the next night.
"It's like reading a novel every night at bedtime," Oki said. "I'm always looking for the perfect punch or the perfect time to land the perfect punch.
"Boxing's like Japanese sword fighting. You got to strike the guy when he's about to strike you. My theory is that you've got to throw the punch at the same time your opponent is throwing one at you."
What it demands is quick thinking, timing and reflexes.
"It all starts with concentration," Oki said. "If you cannot focus, you lose, get hurt, knocked out or quit. Most people give up."
He started Oki Boxing Club 12 years ago. Mark Ozaki, who recently joined the Kauai Police Department, has been his most successful boxer.
Oki is proud of the fact that Ozaki once was a nationally ranked collegiate fighter.Twenty-year-old Carleen Pimental, who began training a month ago, is a current project.
"She hits like a No. 4 batter on a baseball team," Oki said of Pimental's power.
Pimental respects Oki's knowledge and attention to detail.
"He's awesome because he's patient and makes always sure I've got it down right before moving on to something else," she said.
Oki's dedication is helping to keep amateur boxing alive on the island. He said there are enough "amateur smokers" on Oahu and other islands to keep his handful of fighters in training.
For Oki, boxing is a passion.
So much so that he even found a way to cleverly use it in a journalism class project.
"I set up a three-round fight on the computer playing Yahoo against Google," he said. "Google won a unanimous decision because it recorded more hits."
The 1959 Farrington High graduate, who started at fullback in football his senior year, began showing his athletic potential at Kalakaua Intermediate, where he broad jumped 9 feet at 14 years old.
"I had a lot of fast-twitch muscle cells, so I could do powerful bursts," he said. "But I had no stamina. I'm hard to beat in a 10-yard sprint, but can't keep it up for 40 yards."
Studious child
His interest in boxing grew from age 8 while listening to his father, Ernest, and friends recount their boxing memories.A studious boy growing up in Kalihi's Damon Tract courted trouble from bullies if he wasn't able to defend himself.
"You had to know how to fight," Oki said. "In fact, I remember (Gov. Ben) Cayetano. He was a mellow guy, but I was afraid of him because he was one of the older guys I used to see on the streets."
Oki finally took the plunge into boxing at age 23.
At the time, he was a full-time student at the University of Hawaii-Manoa working toward a 1971 degree in psychology and holding down a full-time job as a computer analyst at Lualualei.
"In 1967, I walked into Wahiawa gym and told people I wanted to lose weight," he said. "But in my heart, I wanted to box. I just didn't tell people that because of my age."
Oki downplays his high IQ.
He's no longer a dues-paying Mensa Society member, but took the Super Mensa test.
"I tried a couple of years ago and couldn't get past the first question," he said. "But there's no time limit so I can still kind of work on it."
Oki and his third wife, the former Barbara Ikeda, started the Saimin Stand seven years ago in Kekaha on the west side of Kauai and opened the island's first 24-hour diner here three years later.
If you want to talk boxing or solve a difficult math problem, the man in back on the midnight shift is the one to see.
Just don't ask him to cook anything that's not listed on the special midnight menu.