Grizzly relative I knocked out first with attack on both sides (6)

'grizzly relative' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both animals as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?

'i knocked out first with attack on both sides' is the wordplay.
'knocked out' becomes 'kod' (synonyms).
'first' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'on both sides' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (the left and right sides of the word are used).
'attack' with its centre taken out is 'ak'.
'i' after 'kod' is 'kodi'.
'kodi'+'ak'='KODIAK'

Can you help me to learn more?