One main event fighter failed to show, but another may have been discovered during last night's X-1 Battlegrounds 4 mixed martial arts card.

A crowd of around 1,000 at the Blaisdell Center Arena watched Kalihi's Mark Moreno win the impromptu main event with a spectacular first-round knockout of Wisconsin's John Geraghty.

Moreno's bout became the main event because Brazil's Marcelo Tiger was not cleared by doctors to fight last night. He sustained a broken hand in training two weeks ago, but still intended to fight South Africa's Trevor Prangley.

"He's here (in Hawai'i)," X-1 promoter Mike Miller said of Tiger. "He came here wanting to fight, but the doctor wouldn't clear him because of his hand."

Moreno took advantage of the opportunity by dropping Geraghty with an overhand right to the chin. The referee stopped the bout 1 minute, 37 seconds into the first round.

"The plan was to counter-punch him," Moreno said. "I knew he would try to come in on me, so I was just waiting for it. Once he came in, I just stepped back and then threw the right. I practiced it a lot and it worked out perfect."

Moreno is the X-1 organization's welterweight (170 pounds) champion, but the title was not at stake last night.

"Hopefully, this will get me into bigger fights," said Moreno, 26. "I feel like I'm ready."

Moreno, who is expected to defend his title in August, improved to 9-6-2; Geraghty dropped to 3-5-1.

In a semi-main event, Pearl City's Eddie Yagin defeated the Big Island's Kana Hyatt to win the X-1's vacant super lightweight (145 pounds) championship.

Yagin won it when he got on top of Hyatt and unleashed a flurry of unanswered punches. The referee stopped it 1:36 into the second round.

Preliminary bouts:

135 pounds: Mark Oshiro def. Tony Belvedere by choke-out, 1:20 into first round. 185: Bryson Kamaka def. Joshua Ferreira by disqualification (illegal kick by Ferreira). 170: Dylan Clay def. Kimo Woelfel by choke submission, 2:03 into second round. 180: John Crisostomo def. Chad Gusman by armbar submission, 2:00 into first round. 155: Lorrin Ishimine def. Kaleo Kwan by decision. 150: Dave Moreno def. Lorenzo Moreno by doctor stoppage (cut to Lorenzo's eye). 155: Alika Rincon def. Marcus Moreno by decision. 140: David Balicao def. Donald Gonzales by decision. 260: Thomas Ferguson def. Nickolas Agricola by choke submission, 0:51 into first round. 155: Peter Placido def. Gene Gregory by decision.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.