For Kala "Kolohe" Hose, an open mouth meant opportunity.

After absorbing a blitzkrieg of precision kicks and savage punch combinations in the first round, the Icon middleweight champion from Wai'anae pounced on a visibly gassed Rolando Dominique in the second, pummeling his much taller opponent on the mat en route to a second-round TKO victory in the main event of last night's Icon "Hard Times" card at the Neal Blaisdell Center.

"I wanted to go toe to toe with him," a bruised and bloody Hose said afterward. "I know how he fights and I knew he would come out with a lot of energy. I just wanted to stay with him."

In earlier bouts, Bao Quach of California wrested the Icon North American Bantamweight Championship from Pearl City fighter Mark Oshiro and Phil Baroni made short work of Waipahu's Ron Verdadero with a first-round TKO.

Kolohe, liberally listed at 5-foot-9, gave up nearly half a foot in height to the long and lean Dominique, who entered the night with a 3-0 record.

Dominique, from Alaska, took advantage of his superior reach early, tagging Hose with high roundhouse kicks and left hook-right uppercut combinations.

A staggering Hose appeared in trouble midway through the first but refused to go down. His wild swings kept Dominique at bay long enough for him to recover.

Oddly cautious, Dominique failed to press his advantage. When the fight went to the mat just before the bell, Hose proved the more determined fighter.

Dominique, who lingered in his corner with his hands on his knees, was clearly exhausted at the start of the second round.

"I knew he was tired because I could see his mouth open," Hose said. "That's when I knew I had him."

Dominique connected early with a straight left, but Hose, unfazed, punished him for the effort with a series of short hooks and knees before taking him to the canvas.

On the mat, Hose nailed Dominique with a solid left hook that effectively broke Dominique's resistance. Straddling the larger opponent, Hose connected with several straight rights to Dominique's head before referee Yuji Shimada ended the fight 1:05 into the round.

"I knew he was tired but I was kind of surprised how quickly he went down," Hose said.

After the fight, Baroni, the self-proclaimed "New York Bad Ass," hopped into the ring to challenge Hose to a rematch. Hose knocked out Baroni in March to claim the middleweight belt vacated by Robbie Lawler.

Hose said he is willing to fight whoever emerges from an upcoming tournament that will determine his next opponent.

While Hose's victory was impressive, the fight of the night was staged by Quach and Oshiro, two evenly matched fighters who combine high skill and ferocious intensity.

Quach dictated the flow of the match early on, taking Oshiro to the mat and turning him to his left, leaving Oshiro vulnerable to repeated knees to the ribs and lower back that drew audible groans from the crowd.

Near the end of the first round, Quach secured what could have been a tap-out inducing arm bar on Oshiro, but Oshiro held on just long enough for the bell.

Quach picked up where he left off, again maneuvering Oshiro into an arm bar. This time, however, Oshiro was able to spin his way out.

Oshiro, recently returned from a knee injury, caught Quach with an uppercut as the two rose to their feet, then unleashed a brutal flurry of punches that drew a thunderous ovation from the partisan crowd.

The rally was short lived, however, and Quach again regained control on the mat.

In the third and final round, Quach repeatedly tried to execute the arm bar again before shifting into a leg lock that torqued Oshiro's injured knee.

The match would end with both men still grappling on the canvas.

"I tried to put him into every submission possible that I could think of but he kept fighting," Quach said.

Baroni, a consummate showman, strutted to the rink in Jackie O. shades and a sparkling red-and-silver robe from the Gary Glitter collection, drawing an even mix of boos and guffaws from the audience.

His bout lasted barely as long as his entrance. He and Verdadero, a veteran fighter who delivers Budweiser in the day, offered a study in stark stylistic contrast, but it was Baroni who dominated. After a brief exchange of blows, Baroni clutched Verdadero's head and dropped him to his knees with a volley of hard rights.

Shimada called the fight just 51 seconds into the first round.

After the fight, Baroni called out Hose then blew kisses and waved the shaka sign to the jeering crowd.

In another undercard match, Sydney Silva extracted a bruising measure of revenge on 18-year-old Japanese fighter Hideto Kondo for a perceived insult at the weigh-in last week.

Kondo's side had lobbied for Silva to be weighed a second time claiming that he had dehydrated himself to get to the 160 pound limit.

Silva, who used to fight at 170, physically dominated Kondo during the fight, spinning around the much smaller fighter with hard kicks to the thighs. He forced Kondo to tap out of an arm bar with 1:13 left in the first round.

The fighters' cornermen drew almost as much attention as the fight itself. Silva was backed by MMA legend Vanderlei Silva, Kondo by Japanese fighting icon Masato.

"They were playing mind games after the weigh-in," Sydney Silva said. "It may have been nobody's fault. Maybe it was a miscommunication. But somebody had to pay the price."

ICON "HARD TIMES"

MAIN EVENT

Kala "Kolohe" Hose def. Rolando Dominique, Rd. 2 TKO

BANTAMWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Bao Quach def. Mark Oshiro, Rd. 3 dec.

205  Maui Wolfgram def. Richard Desforge, Rd. 1 submission (choke). 185  Mario Miranda def. Jose Diaz, Rd. 1 TKO. 175  Phil Baroni def. Ron Verdadero, Rd. 1 TKO. 170  Kyle Miyahana def. Brewski Louis, Rd. 3 dec. 165  Brad Tavares def. Devin Kauwae, Rd. 1 TKO. 160  Eddie Rincon def. Dean Lista, Rd. 3 dec.; Sydney Silva def. Hideto Kondo, Rd. 1 submission (arm bar). 150  Ed Newalu def. Ricky Hoku Wallace, Rd. 3 dec. 145  Alan Lima def. Mark Tajon, Rd. 2 submission (arm bar). 140  Ian Dela Cuesta vs. Ola Silva, no contest