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Nagoya Basho Day 14 Comments
The Nagoya Basho can best be characterized as a tournament without any direction. Coming out of the first weekend, Ichiyamamoto held the lead for a few days, but he may not even reach double digit wins this tournament. The two Mongolians in Kirishima and Tamawashi looked great at the start of Week 2, but then the orders were given to have them pull back. Aonishiki has solidly remained on the leaderboard throughout, but he's winning with "park the bus" sumo as they say in tennis, so he hasn't really established a baseline of sumo where anyone goes "that's going to be hard to beat." Onosato has suffered too many bad losses to really provide direction, and nobody has carried this basho start to finish. In my opinion, you need that baseline rikishi to really set a standard that others can follow, and you'd have to say that Aonishiki was the closest rikishi to that, but the entire fortnight, it's never felt as if he was the chosen.

Amidst all of the chaos here in Nagoya, let's get to the three most significant bouts on the day.

Up first was M1 Aonishiki hosting M14 Kusano, and at the initial charge, Aonishiki did his usual "stay back and hold down the fort" tachi-ai putting one foot forward for leverage and then using defensive tsuppari to keep Kusano at bay. As for Kusano, he tried a few tsuppari and then was rebuffed back to his starting line. From there, Aonishiki uncharacteristically moved forward getting a right grip of Kusano's belt, but he didn't burrow in chest to chest and opted to stand there with feet aligned and leave the next move up to Kusano. It was clear he was throwing the bout at this point, and Kusano tried a weak uwate-dashi-nage with his left hand at the belt and right hand pulling down at Aonishiki's head, but the move did little to faze the Ukrainian, and so the Ukrainian moved left, grabbed an outer left, and then pretended to set up a throw. Only problem was Aonishiki purposefully stepped his right foot out as he was appearing to set up the throw, and he just dished out the quick win in favor of Kusano.

This was a very characteristic bout for the rookie meaning he was all over the place, his footwork was sloppy, and nothing he did had any effect. Aonishiki moved in the ring where he wanna when he wanna, and he ultimately stepped out on purpose giving Kusano the win. I've watched thousands of bout of sumo ringside, and these guys know exactly where they're at in the ring at all time, so when you see a sloppy step out like this, you know the bout was fixed.

I actually had a live feed for this bout from the venue, and so I got to see Aonishiki walk back up the hana-michi, and he was not happy. The kid's got two choices:  learn to live with it and be happy or go back to Ukraine.

The result of the bout leaves both of these guys at 11-3, and it's clear that it was in the better interest of the Sumo Association to have Kusano win here.

A few bouts later, M10 Atamifuji made his appearance against Komusubi Takayasu hoping to keep the pace with three losses, and the tachi-ai was pretty good here as both dudes crashed into each and stuck chest to chest for two seconds. From this stance, Takayasu's left hips were completely exposed giving Atamifuji the easy pathway to a right outer grip, and when he didn't take it, I was like, "here we go again." Takayasu was trying to make something happen and he ended up shading a bit right, but Atamifuji had him upright with a left paw to the neck but once again failed to grab that wide open right outer grip, and so Takayasu stumbled dangerously near the edge turned almost 90 degrees to his opponent, but Atamifuji let him survive and the two hooked back up migi-yotsu with Takayasu maintaining a left outer and Atamifuji doing this:



I mean, that was Atamifuji the entire way:  do anything except grab an outer grip. From that point, the two dug in for about four seconds before Takayasu went for an inside belt throw with the right, and Atamifuji just went with it conveniently forgetting to counter with a throw of his own, which would have created a nage-no-uchi-ai. Instead, Atamifuji flopped over and down giving Takayasu the cheap win. The result is Atamifuji's falling to 10-4 needing a Kotoshoho loss to stay in the race. As for Takayasu, he oils his way to 9-5, and I just can't figure out the point of throwing this bout unless Atamifuji wanted the cash.

As they were showing reverse angle replays, I snapped this shot:



You'll note that normally when a guy has his back to the wall like this, he escapes using a tsuki-otoshi, but Takayasu's right hand isn't even close to the counter move. I mean, there is nothing keeping Takayasu in the dohyo here except for Atamifuji's benevolence.

As Atamifuji walked up the hana-michi, he was really hamming it up for the cameras pretending to be upset at the loss. Just hit the showers, jack. The acting was way over the top. And whatever happened to rikishi being stoic in victory or defeat?

The very next bout featured M15 Kotoshoho paired against Sekiwake Kirishima, and this one was a laugher if I've ever seen one. Kirishima had the clear path to moro-zashi from the tachi-ai getting both arms inside, but the problem was he was shading backwards instead of looking to go chest to chest. With Kotoshoho flailing away with very ineffective tsuppari, Kirishima raised his head and watched his opponent closely, and as Kotoshoho shaded to his right, Kirishima just ran into the void allowing Kotoshoho to touch the back of the Sekiwake's belt with a few right fingers. As Kirishima ran straight outta the ring, Kotoshoho tried to follow along with his fingers stuck in the back of Kirishima's belt, but trust me...this grip is not going to send a Sekiwake across the straw against his will:



The bout was clearly thrown in favor of Kotoshoho who stands supreme at 12-2 while Kirishima falls to 8-6.

With the pixie dust...I mean, the leader dust settled, this is what we look like heading into Senshuraku:



It's never a good thing when the yusho is decided before the "kore-yori-sanyaku" bout on Senshuraku, but this is the nature of yaocho.

Aonishiki is paired against Kotoshoho, and I'm pretty sure Aonishiki is going to roll over and give it to Kotoshoho outright without a playoff. If the bout is straight up, Aonishiki will play it safe from the tachi-ai and wait for his opponent's bad pull before moving in for the kill.

Should Aonishiki be allowed to win, the next bout features Kusano vs. Takayasu. This is a compelling bout straight up. Takayasu is a load to move around against his will, and Kusano's sumo is so light and ineffective. For Kusano, it all starts with his feet. His footwork is never grounded to the dohyo, and that takes away his ability to move a heavy dude like Takayasu around. I think the bout will be straight up, and if so, Takayasu is the 75-25 favorite...probably with a throw at the end of a tired opponent.

It's Kotoshoho's to buy tomorrow, and we'll see if the Ajigawa camp complies. It's Aminishiki's call.

There really weren't any other notable bouts on the day. The final two bouts featuring Kotozakura vs. Hiradoumi and Onosato vs. Sekiwake Wakatakakage were easy yaocho calls that aren't even worth breaking down. It was all in an effort to help the two Japanese rikishi in the elite ranks of the banzuke save face as Kotozakura is gifted kachi-koshi at 8-6 with Onosato damn lucky to get his tenth win against four losses.

Lost in the mix on this day was M4 Tamawashi really crushing previous sole leader, M8 Ichiyamamoto. You watch this bout and how Tamawashi dismantled IYM at the belt no less, and you can see just how big the gap is between the foreign rikishi and the Japanese rikishi. Tamawashi moved to 10-4 with the win, and I really thought they should have let him just maintain momentum and work his way to the yusho this basho. I guess, though, his making it look so easy and dominant would not a be a good contrast for the kind of yusho we're going to get this basho, which will be a tournament for the winner that lacks any substance or direction (assuming that Aonishiki does not take it).

Well, it looks like I'll be back at it tomorrow.

Nagoya Basho Day 13 Comments
Let's start the day by examining M6 Takerufuji, who pulled out of the basho this morning after injuring his upper right arm with that fluke ending of his bout against Sadanoumi way back on Day 6. The dude soldiered on against Dr. Wesemann's advice and did beg a win from Chiyoshoma on Day 9, but he just didn't have it and was risking too much by continuing to fight. That will all be yesterday's news come next basho, but the main reason I wanted to bring this dude up is to review life since his yusho back in March of last year. He was actually severely injured that basho on Day 14 and then arranged to have his Senshuraku opponent roll over so he could clinch the yusho, but he had to sit out the next two tournaments to allow his foot to recover.

Takerufuji was demoted to Juryo for a spell during that recovery time, and he made his way back to Makuuchi for the Kyushu basho in November. Since his return, he's gone 10-5, 10-5, 9-6, 6-9, and now 5-10. Granted, of his 40 wins since his return, maybe five of them were actually earned, but the point is...nobody is really paying attention to the dude any more. I've been watching the YouTube numbers on him, and the Sumo Association has been dutifully posting his bouts day in and day out as one of the 12 "chosen" bouts they'll post at the end of each day, but nobody is really watching them. He's never in the top 3, and remember how crazy it was when Asanoyama was still a sekitori? Regardless of what division he fought from or how insignificant his bout was, he was #1 for like two years straight.

That same fire does not exist for Takerufuji, and I believe it's the result of all this hype but nothing being delivered in the ring to back up the hype. I think people subconsciously get fatigued at watching the same old boring, uncompetitive bouts day after day, and the bloom on this dude's rose is fading fast. I'm sure they'll continue to try and make him a thing in sumo, but people are not paying attention to him right now...and why should they?

Okay, you may say, "There are 30 other guys in the division that no one's paying attention to," and that is correct, but those other 30 guys don't hold the record for the only Makuuchi rookie to take the yusho. Such a feat happened 110 years ago when the majority of current sumo fans were still toddlers, but in the modern version of sumo wrestling that started in 1958, he's the only rookie to have secured a yusho.

It's a huge and historic record, but essentially, the Sumo Association just wasted it on this guy. With that yusho, Takerufuji also became the fastest dude to achieve a yusho in terms of basho required to get there. His yusho came in just his 10th tournament on the banzuke counting his mae-zumo basho. The previous record before then was 24 basho held by Takanohana and Asashoryu. Those two would go on to become legendary Yokozuna, but who holds the record now? This yayhoo named Takerufuji who shattered the record by more than twice as fast as the two former Yokozuna. Whenever a record is broken, it's usually by a very slim margin because that's just the nature of sport, but shattering a record by over 100% in terms of time? Are you kidding me? But...sure enough, Takerufuji holds that record too, and what kind of substantive career in the ring is he going to have to back up those records? Nothing, and it shows by how few people are interested in him.

I think Takerufuji's story is indicative of how badly sumo is wasting its legacy by inflating the banzuke, giving rikishi elite ranks they clearly don't deserve, and compromising the yusho by awarding rikishi with championships they clearly didn't deserve.

It's like I mentioned last week when I was talking about Ozzy's last performance with Black Sabbath. It's just sad. The big difference, though, is that Ozzy's death couldn't be avoided. The current circumstances the Sumo Association is allowing to take place can be avoided, but they are choosing to sacrifice all of the sport's integrity and legacy in order to save face with the Japanese public.

15 years ago when the foreign rikishi were largely unchecked and thus occupying all of the elite ranks and taking all of the yusho, the fans stopped coming, so part of this is a matter of survival. However, you could still reign the foreign rikishi in as you do today by saying something like, "We can only allow you to take no more than 60% of the yusho, and we have to maintain equal representation on the banzuke in the elite ranks." That's no different than what is being done today. However, the big change would be to force the Japanese rikishi to fight straight up. Let the best Japanese rikishi rise up the ranks organically, and by naturally doing that, they'll take yusho here and there as the foreigners step back. I guarantee you that the quality of sumo would greatly improve, and it'd actually be enjoyable to watch again.

The problem is that the Ichimon and the big stables won't give up their power, and we've already talked about how all of the fake yusho and fake promotions are enjoyed by rikishi from the power stables.

In my opinion, something needs to be done because sumo wrestling in its current state is largely unwatchable as a sport.

With that, let's turn our attention to the yusho race, which looked like this at the start of the day:



The first bout of significance that occurred today was the M1 Aonishiki - M8 Ichiyamamoto matchup, and as expected, Ichiyamamoto froze up in the pressure situation. Ichiyamamoto is a tsuppari guy, but his thrusts from the tachi-ai today were more like defensive shoves against the top of Aonishiki's shoulders. A true tsuppari guy with game will make contact with the palms of his hands into his opponent's torso or better yet the neck (ever heard of the teppo exercise?). In Ichiyamamoto's case today, his thrusts were more like downward slaps into Aonishiki's shoulders, and that's going to do nothing.

With Ichiyamamoto looking to pull from those downward slaps, Aonishiki wisely didn't walk into a pull trap and easily fended off his opponent's attack with counter tsuppari of his own. As Ichiyamamoto began to panic, Aonishiki slipped a bit to his right forcing Ichiyamamoto to reposition himself close to the Tawara, and at that point, the one time rikishi in sole possession of the lead inevitably went for the pull. As he did, Aonishiki rushed into moro-zashi and forced Ichiyamamoto back and across with little effort.

Aonishiki stuck to his defensive game plan, which we've already gone over multiple times, and as soon as Ichiyamamoto tired a bit and went for the pull, Aonishiki pounced and picked up a victory that didn't require him to win the tachi-ai or mount an offensive attack. His patience and defense won the day, and as boring as it is, you have to credit him for taking what's given. He moves to 11-2 with the win and is in prime position to take the yusho. As for Ichiyamamoto, he goes from sole leader to off the leaderboard in three straight days falling to 9-4, but we must acknowledge that he was asked to lose to Takayasu and Onosato on two of those days.

Next up among the leaders was M14 Kusano traveling high up the banzuke again to take on Sekiwake Kirishima, and Kirishima caught Kusano with a left tsuki to the rookie's right side that had Kusano completely upright and leaning to his left. With Kirishima bearing in, Kusano instinctively positioned himself for a pull, and the scene looked like this:



If Kirishima's intent was to bulldoze Kusano out of the ring, he could have sent him three rows deep from that position, but alas, Kirishima took his foot of the gas, stood upright, and used a few defensive shoves to let Kusano re-gather his wits. Once the two reconnected, they did so in the gappuri migi-yotsu position, and from this point, Kirishima settled in waiting for Kusano's move. After two seconds, Kusano began a force-out charge that was quite ill-advised because he was leading with the right inside position even though his opponent had a left outer grip, and in a real bout, Kirishima would have pivoted to his left and executed an uwate-nage using Kusano's momentum against him, but instead of doing that, Kirishima went from the proper yotsu stance where you lean forward into your opponent to standing straight upright. With the Sekiwake now completely vulnerable, Kusano forced Kirishima back a half step and then tripped him back soto-gake style using the right leg hooked around the back of Kirishima's left.

On one hand, this move from Kusano was executed nicely, but on the other hand, Kirishima let him do it. If you want to see how tough it is to beat an opponent attacking with the inside position when your opponent has the outer grip, just rewatch the Hakuohho - Wakamotoharu bout earlier in the day. That one was real; this one was not. Big difference. What's important in terms of the yusho race is that Kusano stays on the leaderboard at 10-3 while Kirishima is long gone at 8-5.

In the penultimate bout of the day, M10 Atamifuji traveled upward to take on Kotozakura, and the M10 forced the bout to migi-yotsu and just missed out on grabbing a left outer grip. Kotozakura felt that grip coming and moved laterally to his left to keep his belt out of harm's way, but Atamifuji squared right back up and grabbed the left outer for real on the second go around. From there, Kotozakura tried to wriggle out of the grip as he moved back to his right along the perimeter of the ring, but Atamifuji reeled him in tight and forced him across in exactly 10 seconds.

Beating a dead horse, watch the way Kotozakura acted once Atamifuji started his yotsu attack and compare that to the way Kirishima reacted the bout before when Kusano began his force-out attack. Once again, one bout was real sumo and the other was not. Pretty easy to tell if you ask me as Atamifuji manages to stay on the leaderboard at 10-3.

The last bout of the day featured our final two leaders in M15 Kotoshoho vs. Onosato, and Kotoshoho was proactive at the tachi-ai forcing the bout to migi-yotsu and grabbing a left outer grip straightway. The M15 also had Onosato straight upright, and I was curious why Onosato didn't grab a left outer grip for himself. You can see here that it was wide open:



But grab it he didn't, and before you knew it, Kotoshoho was dragging Yoko Ono over to the edge uwate-dashi-nage style and then Kotoshoho sorta threw Onosato off the dohyo altogether in about four seconds. They ruled it uwate-nage, but it wasn't the greatest throw I've ever seen executed. Still, a rikishi ranked at M15 just manhandled a rikishi ranked as a Yokozuna in the day's final match, and not only did he manhandle him, but this was a common shot in the funny papers afterwards:

A Yokozuna in the mosh pit is never a good look.  Why Onosato didn't grab a left outer grip I don't know. The dude is not a belt fighter for sure, and he's never gone for the belt in his bouts, so maybe he's just not comfortable. Not to grab it led to his demise, but when has Onosato really held his ground when his opponent is trying to kick his ass? The answer is never. Onosato was further exposed here as the fraud that he is while Kotoshoho moves to an incredible 11-2 and is the co-leader with Aonishiki.



Looking ahead to tomorrow, Kotoshoho draws Kirishima, and this is one of those 100-0 bouts in favor of the Sekiwake if it's fought straight up. Judging by Kirishima's act the last three days, I assume he's going to throw this one too but we'll see.

Atamifuji gets Takayasu, and Atamifuji is the clear favorite there. It's not quite 100-0 because Takayasu had a decent tachi-ai using his weight, and he could sneak in a pull, but this one is at least 80-20 in favor of Atamifuji. I'm pretty sure this one will be straight up.

Finally, Aonishiki is matched up against Kusano, and this one is at least 90-10 in favor of Aonishiki. Kusano has not shown the ability to beat an opponent in linear fashion in a straight up bout, so how is he suddenly going to do it against Aonishiki? The Ukrainian stands his ground well, and he will surely bait Kusano into a pull and then ambush him outta the ring...if the bout is straight up. This is one of those where the Association looks at the four remaining leaders, and if they feel that they just gotta have a Japanese yusho, the order will be sent to Aonishiki's camp.

Sheesh, usually by the end of Day 13 I can predict the exact outcome and then mic drop until the next basho, but it's been a long time since I've had zero inkling as to what would happen heading into Day 14.  Regardless, the yusho will come from the rank and file this basho.

I will see you tomorrow.

Nagoya Basho Day 12 Comments
Dang, Ozzy and Hulk Hogan in the same week? For those of us who are a product of the 80's growing up, those are some tough losses. And who's next...Ralph Macchio?  As I've been reading the little pieces on the Hulkster today, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Don Roid about a decade ago. You may remember that Don Roid used to write for us for a few years, and then Don and I would do a podcast in between basho. I actually think Don is still calling MMA fights in Europe if I'm not mistaken, but I haven't talked to Don since before Covid. Anyway, I can't remember if it was during a podcast or if it was a private conversation, and this is when sumo really started selling its soul to the yaocho devil, and I said something to the effect of, "Sumo is turning more and more into professional wrestling right before our eyes," and Don cut me off right away and said, "Wait a minute, don't say that. We were actually really good at what we did. These guys look like they don't even care."

Don was a former wrestler himself, and while nobody including Don is going to argue that professional wrestling is real, they took pride in their work. Sumo, however, is built upon the premise that everything IS real, and so it's impossible to maintain any dignity when this level of bout fixing is necessary for the sport to survive.

It was about 50% real and 50% fake for the leaders today, so let's first introduce the leaderboard and then get to the bouts.



Going in chronological order again, M10 Atamifuji and M16 Mitakeumi were up first, and Mitakeumi proactively moved forward at the tachi-ai looking to get both arms inside. Atamifuji cut him off easily, however, and about two seconds later, Mitakeumi realized his only hope was the spring the pull trap. As Mitakeumi began his lateral retreat, Atamifuji was ready for it, and as Mitakeumi moved back and to his left, Atamifuji rushed forward and pushed the self-compromised Mitakeumi across with ease. Atamifuji moves to 9-3 with the win while Mitakeumi is thankfully off the leaderboard now at 8-4.  This bout was so inconsequential that I couldn't even find a picture of it on the wires.

M4 Tamawashi moved across the starting lines connecting on some effective thrusts against M1 Aonishiki, but then just as quickly Tamawashi backed up to his own starting line, and I knew the bout was compromised at that point. That was Aonishiki's cue to start moving forward, and Tamawashi complied by offering defensive tsuppari as he backed up and then moved right. The problem was that Aonishiki is not an attacking rikishi. He plays defense and waits for his opponent to tire or go for a pull and then he takes advantage, and so it was up to Tamawashi to dictate everything here. Tamawashi still circling the perimeter of the ring got Aonishiki in a right kote-nage grip, and all the Mongolian need to do was plant his left foot and go the for throw as the flow of the bout was in his favor:



Tamawashi's actual reaction? He simply let go of the grip and backed himself up to the edge. Aonishiki couldn't force Tamawashi back at that point because he wasn't the one that caused Tamawashi's retreat, and so the M4 reassumed the right kote-nage grip and then just stood there flat footed waiting for Aonishiki's reaction. After letting Aonishiki retool his foot positioning, the Ukrainian went for a left inside belt throw, and Tamawashi just went with it applying zero counter pressure with his kote grip. In fact, there was such little force coming from Tamawashi that Aonishiki actually fell to both knees and then rolled over the edge awkwardly.

Trust me, I've seen at least a thousand inside belt throws, and that's not how a true belt throw ends. A true belt throw is the result of a nage-no-uchi-ai where both guys are exerting as much pressure as possible. When just one dude exerts the pressure and the other doesn't, you get both dudes flopping and rolling all over the ring like this bout. Aonishiki moves to 10-2 with the yaocho, but he is not all that...yet. I remember that Hoshoryu early on needed to rely on yaocho here and there, and I think the Ukrainian will mature quite well, but his run this basho against fellow leaders has been fake. As for Tamawashi, see ya see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya as he voluntarily removes himself from the leaderboard in falling to 8-4.

M15 Kotoshoho climbed all the way up the banzuke to take on Komusubi Takayasu, and the M15 let Takayasu come to him at the tachi-ai. Takayasu complied by moving forward with his arms outstretched in tsuppari fashion, and just like that, Kotoshoho backed up a step and sprung the pull trap less than two seconds into the bout sending Takayasu (8-4) running out of the ring with no ability to stop himself. The entire bout was over in exactly two seconds, and while I always want a guy to win moving forward, at least the bout was real. Still, it says a lot that Kotoshoho did not have confidence in his sumo to try a forward attack, and this whole yusho race feels like that. Nobody is grabbing it by the horns with impressive sumo as Kotoshoho stays on the top tier at 10-2.

M14 Kusano also traveled up to the top of the banzuke to face Sekiwake Wakatakakage, and this bout was easily the best of the day. Wakatakakage is not a guy who can blow you off the starting lines nor stand you up straightway, and so Kusano's tachi-ai of positioning his hands up high in order to set up a pull was a huge failure.

As an aside, notice the pattern here? Kotoshoho was looking pull from the start, and Kusano was looking pull from the start.

Back to the bout at hand, though Wakatakakage's tachi-ai had little impact, he was still able to trade places in the dohyo and burrow in with the right inside belt grip thanks to Kusano's tachi-ai. Kusano used his size advantage to hunker down with his own right inside position, and after a poor tachi-ai from both parties, the two settled in and gave us a nice chess match short as it was. After being in the clinch for a few seconds, Wakatakakage was able to sense his opponent's vulnerability, and so he went for the quick force out charge leading with the right inside. Kusano could not stop that charge, but he was able to counter at the edge going for a left tsuki-otoshi, and in a real bout of sumo, the guy on defense like this always counters at the edge. When you don't see any counter move, the bout was either fake or the guy on the losing end was too old to move his body in kind.

The counter move from Kusano almost worked, but Wakatakakage was able to strong-arm Kusano down before WTK himself crashed down. What a great ending here as Wakatakakage shows how great sumo can be in picking up kachi-koshi at 8-4 while Kusano falls to 9-3.

Before we move, you saw a bit of potential here in Kusano, and it's such a shame that the dude is rarely tested. He's not going to get better until he learns how to win these bouts. He can start by trying something other than a pull at the tachi-ai.

The Sekiwake Kirishima - Kotozakura bout was one of those that makes you throw up in your mouth. The two traded tsuppari from the tachi-ai in defensive fashion, and with Kotozakura not doing anything, Kirishima moved in tight getting the right arm inside. Kotozakura also got the right inside, but he was up so high that his outer belt was mere inches from Kirishima's left hand. Kirishima didn't grab that uwate straightway, but with Kotozakura not doing anything, Kirishima finally grabbed that left outer that was so close to the front of Kotozakura's belt that Zak's right arm was rendered useless:



There is no recovering from that position if you're Kotozakura. You're upright. You have no chance to grab a left outer of your own. And your opponent has just cut off your right inside position. Kirishima held that position for about 10 seconds wondering, "What do I do?" because Kotozakura was incapable of making a move, and so Kirishima began to move to his right and he took his right arm from the inside and brought it outside begging Kotozakura to assume moro-zashi. The problem was that Kotozakura was so hapless he didn't even see it, and so Kirishima continued moving right pretending to set up a right tsuki-otoshi along the straw, but he never went for the move and instead let Kotozakura force him across the straw.

As for Kotozakura, he stumbled forward and nearly did a handstand below the dohyo, but ya know, this is the typical stance of a guy who has just won by yori-kiri right?



Wow. It's just amazing at the level these Mongolians have to go through in order to throw these bouts. At least Aonishiki was able to muster an inside belt throw. Kotozakura couldn't even get moro-zashi when Kirishima was begging him to maki-kae. It's incredible just how lazy and hapless Kotozakura is, and this is the dude currently representing the Ozeki rank. Sheesh, talk about a low bar. Kirishima removes himself from the yusho board in falling to 8-4 while Kotozakura is as unworthy of a 7-5 rikishi as I've ever seen.

To me, I think it's a mistake to have the Mongolians remove themselves from the yusho race. They give the leaderboard a bit of street cred, and with both of them off it now, who's there to wield a beating stick?

The final bout of the day featured M8 Ichiyamamoto taking on Onosato, and Onosato didn't even cross his starting lines at the tachi-ai. Ichiyamamoto did and began a mild tsuppari attack, and Onosato's gut instinct was to go for a pull. The problem was Onosato was too lazy to move to either side, and so with him retreating, all Ichiyamamoto had to do was keep his feet and go for the final push out. Ichiyamamoto shuffled his feet, however, and went for a single push before hitting the dirt, and Onosato was pushed beyond the straw before Ichiyamamoto touched down, but Onosato hadn't touched out behind the straw yet. I actually thought Onosato won the bout live, but here is the photo finish.

Ruling on and ending like that is completely subjective, but I think they made the right call today in ordering a rematch.

In the do-over, we got the same exact tachi-ai: Ichiyamamoto moving forward ready to tsuppari (his heart wasn't into it for sure) and Onosato looking to pull first. Once again Yoko Ono was too lazy to move laterally, and so he compromised himself by backing all the way to the straw. He was dead to rights at that point for sure, but this was Ichiyamamoto's reaction:



Yes, Ichiyamamoto actually lifted his knee up near Onosato's package and then he turned around 180 degrees right there at the point where all he needed to do was offer a final tap to send Onosato back and across. With Ichiyamamoto now showing Onosato his backside, he darted across the ring as Onosato followed in tow and pushed him out from behind.

Okay, let me get this straight. You have a guy ranked as a Yokozuna, and he's fighting a rikishi going nowhere in his career ranked at M8, and the Yokozuna's reaction in two consecutive bouts is to go for a lazy pull? I'm just glad that I don't have to pretend this is all real. The result is both rikishi standing at 9-3, one loss off the pace of the two yayhoos on the top rung as follows:



And thanks to NHK World for providing these leaderboard in English. They can't be arsed to offer a broadcast in HD, but they do craft excellent leaderboards!!

I don't see how that yusho line doesn't come down to three losses because Aonishiki and Kotoshoho aren't going to interest viewers. Here are the matchups tomorrow:

The first bout in chronological order is M1 Aonishiki paired against M8 Ichiyamamoto. If Ichiyamamoto actually had confidence in his sumo, he could rather easily exploit Aonishiki's passive tachi-ai and beat the Ukrainian with a tsuppari attack. The problem is that Ichiyamamoto doesn't have confidence in his sumo, and so I see Aonishiki patiently waiting for a bad Ichiyamamoto pull and exploiting it in the end. I'm quite sure this will be straight up, and if so, it's 75-25 in favor of the gaijin.

Kusano draws Kirishima and Kirishima is favored 100-0 in a straight up bout. I'm expecting to see something similar to what we got between Kirishima and Kotozakura today, but go ahead Kirishima...pleasantly surprise me.

Atamifuji visits Kotozakura, and Atamifuji is the heavy favorite (bada boom!). Kotozakura is so bad, but I think he's got a slim chance to win at the belt. 90-10 in favor of Atamifuji, but this bout also has yaocho written all over it.

Finally, M15 Kotoshoho battles Onosato, and this is actually a tough call in a straight up bout. I wanna say it's too early to have Onosato knocked off of the board because nobody else has name recognition, so I'm expecting a yaocho here. If the bout his straight up, I think it's pick'em. Onosato has a chance in a straight up bout, and here's why:  describe Kotoshoho's sumo in 10 seconds or less. Right, you can't.

Nagoya Basho Day 11 Comments
There's an old adage eloquently expressed by George W. Bush when he said, "Fool me once, (long pause) shame on, shame on you. (Even longer pause) You fool me, uh, you can't get fooled again." Or something like that. One of the bouts today reminded me of a bout nearly 23 years ago where I had one of those moments where you know subconsciously that what you just saw wasn't real, but your mind doesn't want to allow itself to be "fooled again," and so you just swat it away and quickly think of reasons to explain away what you just saw. Well, he just had a bad day. He was nervous in the situation. He's never been in this situation before. He's slightly injured. He fell to the pressure. He couldn't help going for the pull. And on and on.

Ironically, all of those aforementioned situations are valid and occur in any sport, but the big difference in today's version of sumo is that actual careers and superstars are being created because their opponents had a bad day...every day.

I just don't know how the general viewing public can continue to swat those red flags in their minds away bout after bout and day after day to keep themselves convinced that sumo wrestling is straight up just like any other sport. Yesterday, I mentioned in my intro a few of the marketing ploys that the Association has adopted lately, but the chief marketing strategy of all is to use bout fixing in favor of the Japanese rikishi, and it was on display again today in seemingly all of the prominent bouts.

Let's review the leaderboard at the start of the day and concentrate on these rikishi:



Take away the foreigners from that board and you're left with Ichiyamamoto, Kusano, Kotoshoho, and Mitakeumi.

There is absolutely nothing to work with there. Everyone knows who Mitakeumi is, but orchestrating a yusho for him would be too obvious. Nobody has been scrutinizing this dude the entire basho. No one is in their seats when he fights, and I'm sure nobody under the age to 75 is watching television at 4:30 PM. If they had to go back and look at the body of his work this basho, you'd find nothing but obvious yaocho.

Starting last basho, the Association has been shoving the name "Kusano" down everyone's throats, but people aren't going to tune in to watch him yet. I can tell by the number of views of his bouts on YouTube that the association posts every day that he hasn't caught fire yet.

As for Ichiyamamoto and Kotoshoho, they have zero name recognition, and sumo can't market anything with those two yayhoos.

So...you gotta fatten up that leaderboard again by bootstrapping some rikishi with better name recognition back onto the leaderboard, and you do that by lowering the yusho line thus the quality of the yusho race altogether. Course, when was the last time Sumo was reality worried about quality?

Nothing is relevant the remainder of this basho until Ichiyamamoto loses, and so let's start with his bout first as he moved up the charts a bit to take on Komusubi Takayasu. Ichiyamamoto stood straight up at the tachi-ai allowing Takayasu to come to him, and the two traded machine gun tsuppari that were all upper body, so they had no effect. For his part, Ichiyamamoto moved laterally and back and all over the place making Takayasu give chase, but the one thing he didn't do was ever move forward in attack mode. With the two dancing all over the ring, Takayasu suddenly found his heels on the straw with Ichiyamamoto right in front of him as seen at right, but instead of pushing the Komusubi across, Ichiyamamoto instead just moved to the left of Takayasu dipping his right shoulder down as if he was going out, and Takayasu used that momentum to flip him over and out with an inside belt throw.

This was like a gymnastics coach who stands beneath the uneven bars and gives the gymnast a little bit more boost in whatever technique they're trying to master. In this bout today, Ichiyamamoto (9-2) clearly took a dive over the straw, and Takayasu made it look spectacular with that uncontested, inside belt flick.

Okay, a very predictable result as the yusho line now falls to two losses, which means the three-loss rikishi are now in play...including Takayasu again who is gifted kachi-koshi at 8-3.

Two dudes on the leaderboard connected in the second bout of the day with M14 Kusano taking on M16 Mitakeumi, and Kusano came with a nice kachi-age with the right hand while Mitakeumi got the right arm inside. The problem was that Kusano's tachi-ai was solid enough that Mitakeumi couldn't move him into a vulnerable position. Still, Kusano agreed to slowly give up ground, and then at the edge, he sprung the uwate-nage trap with the left hand easily hoisting the old-timer across and down with ease. Mitakeumi swallows a reality pill here not to mention he took a pretty hard fall landing on the edge of the mound in dropping now to 8-3. As for Kusano, he moves to 9-2 with the nice win, and he was lucky to get a fella today who he can legitimately beat.

By the way, this is what the lower part of the arena looked like prior to the bout from the Shomen angle:



You can see that people aren't showing up anymore to watch Mitakeumi, and the fans here have been the most late arriving I think I've ever seen.

M15 Kotoshoho drew M11 Takanosho, and the latter suddenly forgot his strong tsuppari attack, which had earned him a 7-3 record coming in. Instead of tsuppari, Takanosho kept his hands high and wide at the tachi-ai as he stepped forward and reached for a right outer grip, and then on a dime, he backed himself straight outta the dohyo with Kotoshoho in tow. It was over in under three seconds, and I'll bet the going rate is higher than the usual 200,000 yen because Kotoshoho is in the yusho race. I would have taken the money too as Kotoshoho buys his way to 9-2 while Takanosho falls to 7-4.

With Ichiyamamoto's loss, the rikishi who stood had three losses on the day coming in were suddenly in play, so let's next visit the M10 Atamifuji - M13 Shodai bout. The two traded positions in the ring at the tachi-ai before coming away in migi-yotsu, and Shodai reached for the left outer first but was denied by the sheer size of Atami the Hutt's gut, and with Shodai forced to settle back in, it was Atamifuji's turn to reach for the let outer, and he got it with ease, and once obtained, the yori-kiri was textbook from there. Atamifuji has been quietly putting together a really nice basho a he moves to 8-3 while Shodai falls to 6-5.

M1 Aonishiki was paired against M2 Abi, and Abi snuck in a really nifty hari-te with the left at the tachi-ai, but he followed that up by backing his way to the side near the straw and ducking his head just asking to be pulled. Aonishiki went for a quick pull, but he didn't cause Abi's backwards momentum, so the pull just glanced off harmlessly, and so Abi began moving to his left fishing for more pulls. He executed a few that were half-assed, and the one thing he never tired was his usual tsuppari attack.

As for Aonishiki, I wanna say that he was on his heels from the start, but he was technically moving forward as he chased Abi around. Still, he was looking to pull as well, and so when the action drifted to the East side of the dohyo, Abi reach for a grip at the back of Aonishiki's belt and pulled the Ukrainian directly into his body as he hopped down to the venue floor. Both rikishi crashed down into the first row, but Abi stepped out before Aonishiki was dragged down, so they awarded Aonishiki the win by yori-kiri. If you win a straight up bout by yori-kiri, you don't fall down to the venue floor. Ever. Yes, I know Abi dragged him out of the dohyo, but I'm just saying that nothing added up in this bout, but I'm not surprised. Aonishiki oils his way to 9-2 with the win while Abi falls to 6-5.

I misspoke earlier in the basho when I said that Aonishiki couldn't be beaten by a Japanese rikishi.  He was clearly inferior to Abi today.

M4 Tamawashi visited Kotozakura in the day's penultimate bout, and from the tachi-ai, Tamawashi pretended to go for a frontal left belt grip, but that was just an excuse to lean forward and too his left...quite awkwardly I might add. I was like "Oh brother," and I had plenty of time to think that because Kotozakura didn't clue in whatsoever. You had Tamawashi continuing to lean waiting for the tsuki-otoshi, but Kotozakura was too hapless, and so Tamawashi just toppled himself over lamely to the dirt giving Kotozakura the win without requiring the faux-zeki to do anything. I mean...c'mon, this is just getting ridiculous as Tamawashi does his bet not to lead the basho in falling to 8-3. As for Kotozakura, he moves to 6-5 as a result of Tamawashi's fall.

In the day's final bout, Onosato charged way too high into a passive Sekiwake Kirishima, and the next thing you knew, Kirishima was in moro-zashi. In a straight-up bout, Kirishima would have executed a tsuri-dashi here he was in that deep and Onosato was that high up, but instead, Kirishima moved Onosato this way in that hoping that Onosato would go for a counter tsuki-otoshi, but Yoko Ono was so out of position that Kirishima finally moved to the front corner of the dohyo and used his inside left belt grip to pull to yank Onosato to the side and out while Kirishima fell backwards in the process ensuring that he touched down first.

I think the former Ozeki was trying to create a nage-no-uchi-ai looking finish, but Onosato was so hapless, he flew across Kirishima's body and down to the venue floor below. I'm sure there are plenty of fans who drink the Kook-Aid saying, "Wow, what a great move by Onosato," except after a dude executes an uwate-hineri winning in the process (I can't remember ever seeing that kimari-te), he doesn't end up flat on his back on the venue floor below:



Excuse the YouTube video marking, but I watched the YouTube vids from the Association's site today.  Maybe moving forward we make a new rule:  if you technically won the bout but you fell below the YouTube streaming progress line, you really lost. Okay, that makes me feel better.

This bout reminded me of the 2002 Aki basho when Asashoryu was a newly-promoted Ozeki, and he got moro-zashi against Yokozuna Takanohana, and he had a broken-down Takanohana dead to rights, but he just stood there for like 15 seconds waiting for Takanohana to do something. The Yokozuna finally executed a weak tsuki-otoshi, and Asashoryu bit the dirt. I remember the big red flag on that one, but I swatted it away because I didn't want to entertain the fact that Asashoryu took a dive.

Anyway, this was a very similar bout where a more than capable Mongolian had a Japanese Yokozuna by the short-hairs in the moro-zashi position and then found a way to throw the bout.

Is this how we want to see Yokozuna win?? A big problem with this bout is they're gonna show it on the nightly news shows, and the 18-54 male beer drinking demographic is going to see it and go, "Yep, everything is still being fixed."

Onosato begs his way to 8-3 and whaddayaknow, he's back on the leaderboard!! As for Kirishima, he falls to 8-2 with the interesting tactic at the edge.

With the dust settled on the day, this is the new and improved leaderboard:

9-2: Aonishiki, Ichiyamamoto, Kusano, Kotoshoho
8-3: Onosato, Kirishima, Takayasu, Tamawashi, Atamifuji, Mitakeumi

A leaderboard like that with four days to go is a hot mess because they all of the no-names still occupy that top line not to mention that they are all Maegashira rikishi.  Who knows that's going to happen? Both Kirishima and Tamawashi were in the drivers seat, but they're making sure every day not to find themselves on the top rung of the board, and I think the yusho line has to fall down to three losses at this point because with four days to go, there is just too many chances for everyone to rack up more losses, especially as they fight each other.

Let's do a bit of prognosticating for Day 12.

Ichiyamamoto visits Yoko Ono the final bout of the day, and IYM is the heavy favorite in a straight up bout. Onosato cannot defend himself against Ichiyamamoto's tsuppari attack nor does Onosato have the ability to counter. I'm leaning 70-30 towards Ichiyamamoto throwing the bout, but I wouldn't surprised to see him win either.

Kirishima draws Kotozakura, and Kirishima has a 100% chance to win if that's what he wants. Kotozakura needs two more wins to get to kachi-koshi, and I'm sure there's going to be an offer on the table for the Mongolian. I have no inkling here so it's a picke'em...straight up or yaocho?

Kusano moves way up the charts to fight Wakatakakage, and I'm positive this bout will be straight up. Wakatakakage is favored 80-20 as I don't believe Kusano can handle Wakatakakage's speed. Wakatakakage looked pretty good against Hakuohho today, and Kusano--a similarly built rikishi--is not better than Hakuohho at this point.

Kotoshoho and Takayasu square off, and Kotoshoho is the heavy favorite here. I don't see him throwing this one for the Komusubi, so look for KSH to win. If it's yaocho, you'll know.

Aonishiki doesn't have the sumo skills to solve Tamawashi, so Tamawashi has a 100% chance of winning if he wants to. The thing is...that Aonishiki - Abi bout today was fixed, so let's see if the Aonishiki has an offer on the table that The Mawashi can't refuse.

And finally, Atamifuji draws Mitakeumi, and that one goes without saying. Judging by the disinterest in the arena for Mitakeumi bouts, I'd by shocked if the Hutt rolled over for him tomorrow. It goes without saying that his one is 100% in favor of the slug in a straight up bout.

Nagoya Basho Day 10 Comments
Let's do a bit of housekeeping to start today covering storylines that I've yet to touch on. First up is former Ozeki and one-time yusho winner Asanoyama. The dude is ranked Makushita 1 this tournament, and he's started out 3-2. Three days or so ago, one of the 12 bouts that the Association decided to post on their YouTube channel for the day was an eight minute or so clip of the Makushita jo'i bouts that included Asanoyama's match. I actually love watching the Makushita jo'i, and on this day, Asanoyama was beaten rather handily by former Makuuchi rikishi, Kitanowaka. That was no surprise, but one thing that did mildly surprise me was the video had only 9K views by the end of the day. Of the 12 bouts the Association posted, it was by far in last place. So...milking the Asanoyama name seems to be over, and I'm positive he did not earn all three of those wins (I haven't watched the other bouts).

Now changing the subject, I'm still seeing those "news" articles scattered here and there which are meant to be clickbait in an effort to excite people into reading the article to see what celebrity was spotted at the sumos or in a prominent seat during the broadcast. Here's just an example leading into Day 10:



That headline reads, "It's just too much! A female celebrity makes her grand entrance on location at the sumo's and she's just radiant!"

I know of no other sport that needs to market itself by pointing out the celebrities in the crowd. These celebrities are of course being comp'ed sweet seats, and the Sumo Association is paying these outlets to write the articles. The sumo obviously cannot sell itself.

But...to be fair, I also did see this headline:



"Sumo rikishi finally agrees to go in for a bra fitting"

It says a lot when we have to talk about other things besides the sumo just to stay entertained.

Finally, I've never really seen fans consistently show up this late to the sumos. By the time Onosato fights, the seats are full, but people are taking their sweet time getting to the arena. I don't get the views of the arena that I used to from the general NHK broadcast, but this is just prior to the Ichiyamamoto contest today that occurred well into the 5 o'clock hour.

There are a few empty masu-seki, but the majority of them only have two people sitting in them when each masu-seki holds four.  About 15 minutes before this shot during the Roga match, that mukou-joumen side was only about half full.

Okay, enough of that. In the interest of time, let's cover only the leaderboard today moving in chronological order, which means we start with M16 Mitakeumi who welcomed Shonannoumi up from the J2 slot. There was no way that Shonannoumi was going to come in here from Juryo and demolish the hometown hero (taking notes, Fujinokawa?), and trust me, he could have. Instead SNNU stood upright at the tachi-ai and gifted Mitakeumi the left inside, and once the former Ozeki got a right outer grip, Shonannoumi just stepped across the ring with Mitakeumi in tow. I mean, there is nothing to breakdown here. Just a tidy yaocho in an attempt to keep the Nagoya fans interested even though they don't care about Mitakeumi anymore. They all know. He moves to 8-2 with the cheapie while Shonannoumi falls to 6-4 having done his duty.

Following those two yayhoos were M15 Kotoshoho and M13 Churanoumi, and Kotoshoho blasted a very mukiryoku Churanoumi back from the tachi-ai, but because Kotoshoho didn't cause that movement against Churanoumi's will, he wasn't able to swoop in and finish him off. As a result, Churanoumi moved right throwing a wrench in things, and then Kotoshoho continued to throw endless tsuppari whose purpose was to set up a pull while Churanoumi played along absorbing Kotoshoho's thrusts with ease and surviving his mediocre pull attempts. Towards the end, the action began flowing West, and Kotoshoho committed on a dangerous pull that set him up at the edge, but instead of getting a right arm inside and forcing Kotoshoho across that last step, Churanoumi brought his right arm up high and just pretended to whiff on a kubi-nage or something as he flopped forward and down. This was awful sumo from Kotoshoho, so it bugs me that he's on the leaderboard at 8-2. As for Churanoumi, he knows his place in falling to 5-5.

M14 Kusano drew M9 Ura, a rikishi he can actually beat straight up, and I honestly don't know how hard Ura was trying today. The reason I say that is because every time Kusano employed a move or advanced a step in the ring, he aligned his feet. Every single time. When a guy does that, he is extremely vulnerable, and even at the tachi-ai, Kusano moved forward proactively but his feet were unstable with his right foot off the ground at one point. When a rikishi does proper suri-ashi exercises, their feet never leave the dirt as they slide them forward.

Anyway, Ura's MO today was to run like hell, and he did a pretty good job of it darting all over the place, and Kusano had a tough time keeping him at bay. They went this way and that, and then finally Ura ran to the edge facing outside the dohyo, and as Kusano advanced, Ura grabbed his arm as if he was going to try an ippon-ze-oi, but it was all for show and Kusano easily shoved him out from behind for the sloppy, sloppy win. When there's no sound sumo in a bout like this one, it's hard to tell if it was real or not, but I didn't think Ura (6-4) was trying as Kusano picks up the most haphazard 8-2 I've ever seen.

M8 Ichiyamamoto was paired against M5 Meisei the Merchant, and your sole leader promptly went out and lost the tachi-ai...to a guy with three wins coming in. Meisei drove Ichiyamamoto back a full step, and he could have gotten to the inside and won in seconds, but he refrained and finally started to give up ground. Ichiyamamoto didn't connect on his first thrust until Meisei voluntarily backed up, and Meisei backed all the way up the edge and waited for that final blow. Ichiyamamoto caught him with a decent paw to the neck, but Meisei's fall backwards didn't match the force that came from that thrust. Start to finish, Meisei was trying to lose this one, and there was nothing positive about Ichiyamamoto's sumo today. And yet, the dude finds himself in first place at 9-1.

Can you imagine a fair weather sumo fan checking in for the hell of it and watching sumo like this and thinking, "This guy is the sole leader?" I can already hear Led Zeppelin's chorus for Your Time Is Gonna Come in reference to Ichiyamamoto's ability to stay atop the leaderboard the last five days. As for Meisei, he falls to 3-7 without a care in the world.

In a real world, I'd approach the M1 Aonishiki - M3 Kinbohzan matchup with analysis of how Aonishiki's passive, defensive tachi-ai would get him destroyed by Kinbohzan's beefy tsuppari charge, but two seconds after the tachi-ai, this was the scene:



Kinbohzan did connect on one thrust from the tachi-ai, but he reached for it because he was standing straight up and not moving forward...by choice. With Aonishiki doing nothing but looking to play defense, he recklessly swiped at Kinbohzan's next thrust attempt and apparently the Kazakhstani felt that was enough contact, and so he just put both palms to the dirt two seconds in. Just great. Aonishiki cheaply moves to 8-2 with the gift while Kinbohzan's make-koshi is official at 2-8.

In an extremely busy affair, Sekiwake Kirishima and M5 Hiradoumi were poised to go hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but Kirishima refused the inside. Hiradoumi did take it, but Kirishima was twisting around, and then he tried a wild ke-kaeshi to supposedly kick Hiradoumi away from the inside?? As Hiradoumi advanced after that wild kick, he left himself open enabling Kirishima to get moro-zashi, and he easily assumed the attack position from there and forced Hiradoumi across and down in a flash. This was a wild bout with really no sound sumo, and it feels like these Mongolians are just dicking around most of the time. That they can do that and still easily win is a testament to the wide berth that exists between them and the Japanese rikishi. Kirishima picks up kachi-koshi at 8-2 while Hiradoumi falls to 5-5.

The final bout of the day featured M4 Tamawashi vs. Onosato, and Tamawashi moved a bit left at the tachi-ai backing up a half step, but he wasn't trying to do any damage. Onosato adjusted fairly well, but he certainly wasn't able to take advantage of his self-compromised opponent as Tamawashi held him at bay with defensive tsuppari, so the two ended up in hidari-yotsu. Before they could get chest to chest, however, Tamawashi continued to move left around the perimeter of the dohyo, and he was there for the taking, but Onosato just couldn't keep up, and shove him across, and so at the edge just when you thought Tamawashi was setting himself up to be forced across by Onosato leading with the left inside, Tamawashi switched gears on a dime and used a right tsuki-otoshi placed perfectly into Onosato's side to send him flying outta the ring and into the lap of who else but Onosato's stablemaster, Kisenosato, who was judging the bouts ringside at dohyo West.

Whew, landing in the lap of your stablemaster; talk about the irony. The bout was key of course because it knocks Onosato off of the leaderboard for now at 7-3 while Tamawashi secures kachi-koshi at 8-2. Early on, it just felt like these losses were going to come for Onosato, and I'm pretty sure his dates with the tsuchi are not done. I don't see him winning more than 11 bouts this tournament, and I think it'd be great to see Tamawashi take the yusho here.

NHK World's updated leaderboard is as follows:



That one-loss tier will be dissolved quickly to beef that leaderboard back up. In my opinion, there are huge names on that board in Kirishima and Tamawashi, but the Japanese rikishi are no-names except for Mitakeumi, and his status as a leader is hanging by a thread.

Tomorrow's matchup between Ichiyamamoto and Takayasu is compelling because Takayasu is a dude that Ichiyamamoto can easily beat straight up, but don't be surprised to see that one thrown in favor of Takayasu.

If Ichiyamamoto wins and half of the two-loss dudes go down, this basho suddenly has nothing heading into the last four days.

Nagoya Basho Day 9 Comments
The previous two basho were characterized by poor yusho races in Week 2. It was clear that the table was being set for Onosato's two yusho and subsequent promotion to Yokozuna, and as part of that process, nobody wanted to spoil the party, and the yusho races were really anemic. I mean, there was zero drama in terms of whether or not Onosato would get those yusho and the promotion, so it was two tournaments of going through the motions.

This basho, however, with Onosato's early loss and a host of other rikishi getting out to fast starts, you could just see that we were going to enter Day 9 with what feels like half the division on the leaderboard. Okay, maybe it's only exactly 25%, but still...

Day 8 was a bit of a sobering day. It felt like the directive was given, "Fellas, this is the Lord's day, so let's not bear any false witness by throwing bouts," and not many were thrown for sure. The most glaring straight-up bout was the Onosato - Hakuohho contest, and how awkward was that to see Yoko Ono beaten so badly...by Hakuohho no less? There's nowhere in the rules that say Yokozuna can't lose, but losing in linear fashion to an M4 coming into the day with a losing record? The fact that Onosato was completely hapless in that bout was a reminder to everyone that the dude's entire career has been a fraud, and it's going to be like this until he retires.

That's not my problem, however, so let's go into leaderboard mode at least for today and start with this leaderboard as posted by NHK World at the end of Day 8:



What really stands out to me on that leaderboard is that there are three foreign rikishi who cannot be beaten straight up by any Japanese rikishi on the banzuke. It goes without saying for Tamawashi and Kirishima, and I've seen enough of Aonishiki to know that he can beat any of his Japanese counterparts. At this point, he hasn't shown that he can beat them from the tachi-ai and win in seconds as Tamawashi and Kirishima can, but he just waits his opponents out and let's them tire a bit, and then he goes in for the kill. Anyway, those three are who really stands out and then everyone else are just pawns relying on yaocho to stay on the leaderboard.

Let's go in chronological order meaning we start with M16 Mitakeumi who hosted M12 Midorifuji. I already expressed my disgust on Saturday over the Fujinokawa henka of Mitakeumi to saddle him with his first loss, and then yesterday, Mitakeumi was straight up demolished by Takanosho, who has become the barometer of the rank and file (you have to be old school Sumotalk to understand that reference).

Getting back to the bout at hand, Midorifuji struck lightly on purpose and then immediately backed up and to his right firing away with useless thrusts before pretending to fish for a pull, and so Mitakeumi was able to square back up with his foe although they never went chest to chest until the edge. They were in a very shallow migi-yotsu stance instead, and Midorifuji just continued his backwards momentum straight out of the dohyo on the West side (the opposite side where he started) with Mitakeumi in tow. No need for an outer grip from Mitakeumi or really any measurable technique as Midorifuji did all the work here handing Mitakeumi another cheap win. Mitakeumi stays in the hunt for now at 7-2 while Midorifuji showed some class today in falling to 5-4.

Let's see, what was I saying now about M11 Takanosho acting as the barometer of the rank and file? Today he was paired against M14 Kusano, and the KOOSA-no camp didn't pay him off, and so Takanosho reached his right paw forward from the tachi-ai and choked Kusano so upright that the rookie was looking at ceiling of the IG Arena, and with Takanosho obviously driving forward with his legs, Kusano tried to skirt back and to his left, but Takanosho was just too good and had the over-hyped manufactured rikishi shoved across the dohyo and down the floor below in about 2 1/2 seconds. Damnation, that was a beautiful performance from Takanosho who hands Kusano his second loss of the tournament at 7-2. You watch these bouts and see the stark difference in strength, skill, and ability, and you're like, "Wait, which of these guys was atop the leaderboard at the start of the day?" Takanosho was an army with banners today in moving to 6-3, and that had to have felt good.

I can't believe I'm actually entertaining M9 Ura as a leader, but oh well. Today he was paired against M11 Tokihayate, and the latter looked to get a left arm inside from the tachi-ai, but Ura latched onto that extended arm and tried to yank Tokihayate towards the edge. Tokihayate was able to shake that off, and then Ura got a left arm inside, but he can't force anyone back with that position, and so he darted across the dohyo to the other side in an attempt to fish for a pull, but he mistimed the placement of his foot against the straw and lost his bearings and thus his balance, so Tokihayate rushed in and pushed Ura down to the venue floor with some oomph. Oofta as Ura thankfully falls off the leaderboard at 6-3 while Tokihayate improves to 4-5.

M8 Sadanoumi and M15 Kotoshoho hooked up in migi-yotsu, and then Sadanoumi proceeded to back up around the entire dohyo and out with Kotoshoho trying to keep up. Near the end, Sadanoumi even got left outer grip, but he only used it to tug Kotoshoho into his own body and he gave Kotoshoho the freebie. I didn't even know Kotoshoho was considered a leader, but there he is now at 7-2 after this fake bout. As for Sadanoumi, he falls to 2-7.

M8 Ichiyamamoto was paired against M6 Gonoyama, and the two stood rather upright from the tachi-ai and traded mediocre slaps, and this was a matter of Gonoyama simply waiting for the pull attempt. It came about two seconds in, and Gonoyama just flopped forward and down. With the..uh..win, Ichiyamamoto is the first rikishi to secure kachi-koshi at 8-1 while Gonoyama falls to 5-4. These are the days when I'm sorry I don't have the general NHK broadcast because they would have given Ichiyamamoto his kachi-koshi interview, and the dude is like a combination of Beavis and Butthead during those interviews laughing as he talks.

"Uhhh, like kachi-koshi is cool and stuff, uh huh, huh, huh, heh heh hn."

M4 Tamawashi was matched up against M3 Onokatsu, and the tachi-ai from The Mawashi was decent, but he wasn't driving with the legs, so I knew he was gonna throw it at that point. The two Mongolians traded thrusts for a spell, and then Tamawashi brought his right foot forward and leaned back totally eliminating his balance (I captured that instant in the pic at right), and so Onokatsu took that as a cue to get the left arm inside along with the right, and then as Tamawashi backed up, he sorta paused and waiting for Onokatsu shore up his grip, and the yori-kiri from there was soft so as to not get anyone injured. Easy yaocho call here as Tamawashi simply can't bare being on that top tier as he falls to 7-2 while Onokatsu moves to just 3-6.

M1 Aonishiki was paired against M1 Wakamotoharu, and Aonishiki came out of the chute a half second early, but he put his hands against Wakamotoharu in a defensive posture. Wakamotoharu was able to shake that off rather easily and force the bout to hidari-yotsu, but the Ukrainian ducked down nicely halting any charge WMH was attempting. After a brief stalemate, Aonishiki twisted Wakamotoharu over and down with a nifty shitate-hineri move sending Aonishiki to 7-2 and keeping him firmly in the race. A few more wins for Aonishiki, and he's a shoe-in for the Ginosho this basho. As for Wakamotoharu, he falls to 2-7 and couldn't do anything even after forcing the bout to the belt.

In an uneventful bout, Sekiwake Kirishima was looking pull from the start against M4 Hakuohho, and they weren't the type of pulls where he was looking to inflict any damage. With Kirishima backing his way all over the ring seemingly looking for a pull, a kote-nage, and then another pull, Hakuohho finally caught up with him on the third pull attempt, and Kirishima quickly backed out of the ring with one leg in the air before Hakuohho hit the dirt. This was simply a case of Kirishima running interference for Onosato and trying to justify the Onosato loss to Hakuohho yesterday. See? Hakuohho is so good that he can beat Onosato and Kirishima back to back.

I guess the loss also removes Kirishima from the tops tier, so it's too birds with one yaocho as Kirishima voluntarily drops to 7-2 while Hakuohho ekes his way to 5-4.

The last two leaders met up in the final bout of the day that saw Komusubi Takayasu pay a visit to Onosato. Takayasu moved forward at the tachi-ai, and at the point of contact, he put his right leg forward lifting it above the sand completely sacrificing his balance. That enabled Onosato to get a forward charge going that wasn't an oshi attack nor a yotsu attack, and it was so weak that Takayasu lifted that right foot off the dohyo again and held it in the air a bit.

Here are those two leg lifts captured about two seconds apart and look how upright both rikishi are:



Onosato's was not applying pressure, however, and so despite Takayasu's fighting on one leg half the time, he said to hell with it and backed his way across the straw with Onosato in tow. Ho hum as the Komusubi takes one for team sumo in falling to 6-3 while Onosato his propped up at 7-2.

With the leaderboard reshuffled, it looks like this heading into Day 10:



Ichiyamamoto is not going to yusho, so the yusho line is already down to two-losses, and by the time we get to Sunday, it will be at 12-3 or worse.

I suppose the only other bout worth mentioning was the penultimate bout where Kotozakura drew M3 Kinbohzan, and the latter took charge from the tachi-ai using tsuppari up high. Kotozakura was effective in swiping those arms away, but he couldn't swipe and attack...ya know, like chewing gum and walking at the same time, and so Kinbohzan resorted to Plan B, which was getting moro-zashi against the defenseless Kotozakura, and the force-out was swift and decisive from there. Kinbohzan moves to just 2-7 and shows how easy it is to beat Kotozakura if you try. As for the faux-zeki, he falls to 5-4 after the sound defeat.

It's too early to prognosticate at this point, so let's see what Day 10 brings.

Nagoya Basho Day 7 Comments
As we wrap up the first seven days of the tournament, it doesn't feel as if we have a major storyline carrying the day. The yusho race, which should start in about two days, will become the major story, but for now we have these little quick-hit storylines surrounding a wide range of rikishi, and I guess the positive from that is by the time we get to a leaderboard around Day 9, there should be 10 or so rikishi on it.

I think the biggest news coming into Day 7 was whether or not Takerufuji would withdraw following the freak arm injury he suffered in yesterday's bout. He decided to give it a go, and so let's cover the 10 bouts that the Sumo Association thought would give them the most clicks.

Unbelievably, the sole leader heading into Day 7 was none other than hometown hero, M16 Mitakeumi. Yes, it's still too early to talk about the lead, but it was a great little story to help distract the locals from the generally bad sumo taking place during primetime each day.

Mitakeumi was paired against M14 Fujinokawa today, and the rookie classlessly henka'd the veteran jumping to his right and circling that same direction until he was able to plant his right paw at the back of Mitakeumi's left shoulder, and he easily sent the off-balance rikishi down and out from there. C'mon rook. You gotta read the room, dude. This was the feel-good story of the basho coming into the day and you just ruined it. Unbelievable.

99% of the time, I root against fake sumo and desperately hope for straight up sumo, but this was a case when you gotta let Mitakeumi win. I say that because both of these dudes had 10 wins between the coming into the day, and I'm pretty sure all 10 were paid for. So, if you're running on fake records to begin with, let the veteran have his day and create the sensational storyline about Mitakeumi finishing the first week at 7-0. Instead, he falls to 6-1 with the legit loss while Fujinokawa selfishly moves to 5-2.

And before we move on, a henka against Mitakeumi??

M14 Kusano henka'd to his left against M17 Kotoshoho, and it was poorly executed, but Kotoshoho just let him get away with it. Normally when a dude does a henka that doesn't inflict any damage against his opponent, he's pushed out of the ring in one second. In the case here, Kotoshoho's right arm was positioned to the inside with Kusano off balance, and he could have easily forced the rookie to the side and across, but he instead brought both arms to the outside and began shading backwards. Kusano complied by sorta getting moro-zashi, and I say "sorta" because both arms were inside, but he didn't have Kotoshoho reeled in chest to chest. With Kusano still trying to get his bearings, Kotoshoho pretended to go for a right kote-nage, but it was just an excuse to move towards the edge where Kusano finally forced him down from there. Strong sumo this wasn't as Kusano flubbed the tachi-ai and then relied solely on Kotoshoho (3-4) to do the rest. Kusano's 6-1 record feels so overinflated because we haven't seen any power sumo from the dude whatsoever.  If you look at that pic at left, Kotoshoho was in the perfect position to execute and succeed on a kake-nage but whatever.

Probably the biggest farce of the basho so far was M9 Ura's 5-1 rank coming into the day, and M6 Gonoyama showed why using a very straightforward oshi attack to knock Ura back, to the side, and then off of the dohyo altogether. You'd think that if a dude was 5-1 coming in that he'd at least trying something to win the bout, but Ura knew it wasn't arranged coming in and so he was just protecting his livelihood. And I can't blame him as both dudes finish the day at 5-2 still in the hunt I suppose.

M6 Takerufuji decided to step into the ring against M8 Ichiyamamoto, and from the tachi-ai, Takerufuji put his hands forward meekly with his feet doing that quick shuffle that Scooby Doo and Shaggy do when they're tying to get traction to run away from the bad guys. When Takerufuji finally came forward to his opponent, Ichiyamamoto moved a half step to his right and pulled Takerufuji down just like that. Takerufuji falls to 4-3, and the dude needs to buy one more win to lessen his drop down the banzuke for September, and then he needs to withdraw to let that right arm heal. As for Ichiyamamoto, of all the dudes sporting 6-1 records at the end of the day, he is by far receive the least ink.

Before we move on, as I was watching this bout, I was thinking about Takerufuji's yusho last year in his debut basho. Remember on Day 14 he injured his heel so badly he had to go to the hospital that night, and he ended up missing the next two tournaments?  And yet...he was somehow able to beat Gonoyama on senshuraku in like three seconds. Yes, that same Gonoyama who destroyed Hakuohho a few days ago. I am really shocked by just how brazen the Sumo Association has become in their tolerance of yaocho.

The only reason I'll mention the M2 Abi - M1 Wakamotoharu contest is to bring attention to how ridiculous WMH's fall was at the end. Abi caught Wakamotoharu with two hands to the neck as expected, and he went for a quick pull from there, and I think that Abi thought that move was good enough for his opponent to take the pre-arranged dive. The problem was that Wakamotoharu didn't go down, and I think WMH thought the same thing..."Why didn't I just go down there?" and so he recovered and rested his head on Abi's left shoulder and just leaned sideways waiting to be pulled down. Abi didn't see it, however, so as Abi began setting up another pull, Wakamotoharu next just dipped his left shoulder and flopped, dropped, and rolled regardless of any move that came from Abi.

With Abi now at 4-3 and Wakamotoharu at 2-5, it doesn't matter what the reason was behind this yaocho; it just wasn't a good look because it was so damn obvious.

M1 Aonishiki was defensive at the tachi-ai against Komusubi Ohshoma who was looking to pull the entire way, so we didn't get a nice slap of flesh at the start. With both dudes in defensive mode, they traded defensive tsuppari for about 10 seconds, and you could just see that Kotoshoho was looking for an opportunity to pull first while the Ukrainian was entirely content to just wait his foe out. And sure enough, when Ohshoma went for that pull, Aonishiki had him pushed back and across in a breeze. Aonishiki moves to 5-2 with the nice win while Ohshoma falls to 1-6.

Before we move on, if you're wondering just how good Aonishiki is at the moment, re-examine his tachi-ai. Just imagine what Tamawashi or Kinbohzan or even Abi could have done to Ohshoma from the initial charge, and then look at how Aonishiki handled it. I think I was saying repeatedly last basho that the biggest issue with Aonishiki and Shishi is that they stand up straight at the tachi-ai like amateurs.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage welcomed M4 Tamawashi, and The Mawashi dominated this one halting WTK in his tracks at the tachi-ai before executing a perfect oshi attack as the Sekiwake looked to escape to his left. Other than that obligatory loss to Takerufuji a few days ago, Tamawashi has been on fire this basho as he moves to 6-1 with Wakatakakage falling to 3-3. I would love to see a Tamawashi yusho this basho, and I'd put his chances at 25%...and not because he'd need help getting there, but you know what I mean.

Sekiwake Kirishima halted Komusubi Takayasu in his tracks at the tachi-ai and appeared to be fishing for something inside, and with Takayasu distracted by trying to defend against it, Kirishima suddenly sprang the hataki-komi trap and had Takayasu pulled forward and down in about three seconds.

The ease with which Kirishima was able to do this and the pure hapless nature of Takayasu to be able to do anything despite his 5-1 record coming in is a good illustration of just how much distance exists between these two in terms of ability. Kirishima moves to 6-1, and I just don't see him choosing to take sole possession of the yusho race, but his chances of taking the yusho are 30% I'd say. He along with Tamawashi are the two Storytellers at the moment. As for Takayasu, he falls to 5-2 in defeat.

Kotozakura was paired against M4 Hakuohho, and the latter wasn't able to make a dent at the tachi-ai as the two hooked up in migi-yotsu, and so Kotozakura used his long arm of the law with the left to grab an outer grip, and Hakuohho was incapable of countering at this point. After gathering his wits for a second or two, Kotozakura mounted a textbook yori change keeping Hakuohho pinned in place with his right leg to the outside and Hakuohho's left, and Kotozakura picked up the very nice win in about five seconds. It doesn't happen often, but we must celebrate when Kotozakura picks up a real win, and that he did here in moving to 5-2 while Hakuohho falls to 3-3.

Before we move on, the biggest takeaway from this bout is that both of these dudes belong somewhere in the Maegashira 14 section of the banzuke.

M3 Kinbohzan had Onosato looking at the rafters at the tachi-ai, but instead of moving his legs forward, Kinbohzan did his best flap like an eagle impression. I mean sheesh, I don't think I've ever seen someone spread their arms that far apart for no reason. Well, there was a reason, and that was to give Onosato moro-zashi. Yoko Ono couldn't actually demand it and so in one fell swoop, Kinbohzan took two giant steps backwards and was out of the dohyo with Onosato in tow. This was such a typical yaocho in favor of Yoko Ono, that I decided to document the process with five slides illustrating key points of the bout:

First is the tachi-ai completely dominated by Kinbohzan. Look at the feet of both rikishi. Onosato's feet are aligned as usual while Kinbohzan has one foot forward and one foot back, the perfect positioning in sumo wrestling.



Second, Kinbohzan has Onosato looking at the rafters of the new arena one second in. The footwork still greatly favors Kinbohzan, and all he needs is to follow up with a left paw into Onosato's chest to win the bout (which of course he doesn't).



Third, this is the spread eagle from Kinbohzan I was talking about. I mean, the wing span is so big, half of Kinbohzan's left arm is out of view. This move was not caused by Onosato and was solely done by the Kazakhstani to set himself up for defeat. You should also note that Onosato's footwork is now correct although he's awkwardly too upright...a stance they call koshi-ga-takai.



Fourth, Kinbohzan's retreat was so swift, trying to capture a picture was just a blur, and so here is the point of defeat. You'll notice that Kinbohzan is fully upright after not going for a counter move (despite dominating the tachi-ai), and also note just how out of sorts Onosato's feet are. They're barely touching the sand and certainly aren't grounded to the dohyo in suri-ashi fashion.



Fifth, why is Onosato jogging towards the camera after the bout? I thought this was a yori-kiri, which implies linear force from Yoko Ono towards the East and counter pressure from Kinbohzan towards the West. If such pressure and counter pressure existed during the bout, why is Onosato running towards the Shomen side of the dohyo instead of walking back to his side in a linear fashion??



This peppy jog from Onosato after his bouts is quite common, and it's the result of not having any counter pressure applied against him, and so he needs to jog forward or laterally a few steps to stop his forward momentum and maintain his balance.

It's all yaocho, an it's all obvious with this dude, and yes, he moves to 6-1 with the dirty win, but does it feel like his sumo is dominating? As for Kinbohzan, that 1-6 finish through Week 1 is probably more indicative of fake sumo than Onosato's positive record.

It's still too early to talk leaderboard in my opinion, so let's give it another day before we start going into yusho race mode.

Nagoya Basho Day 6 Comments
I've been bumping around YouTube the past few days since the Association posts about half of the bouts from the current day by the time I get up in the morning, and in between watching sumo, I've been watching clips from the Black Sabbath "Back to the Beginning" show they held a couple of weeks ago in Birmingham, England where the original Black Sabbath lineup performed and then other well-known groups like Guns N Roses performed covers of Sabbath songs. Judas Priest also has a tribute video out there where they cover War Pigs--masterfully I might add, and I'm watching all of this and just reveling in Black Sabbath's greatness over the years.

Admittedly, after watching Ozzy perform with the group in Birmingham, it's clear that he is no longer in any condition to perform live, which is sad, but you can't help but recognize the greatness of that band over the years. Even 50 years later, I never tire of listening to anything by Black Sabbath.

As I watch(ed) Ozzy struggle through Sabbath's mini-set, in a strange way it reminded me of sumo wrestling. I have witnessed greatness in sumo wrestling. I've had the privilege of crowding into a practice tent and watching some of the great ones perform just five feet away from me. I've had Hakuho's stablemaster sit me down on a folding chair at the edge of his practice dohyo and personally tutor me as we watched morning keiko together. I've seen some incredible feats atop the dohyo, and I've truly witnessed greatness over the decades.

Having witnessed all of that, especially the way I was able to get close to sumo in the 90's, I can truly say that I don't see greatness anymore atop the dohyo. There is potential greatness on the banzuke, but it's not being manifest during the hon-basho, and like watching Ozzy struggle through that set, I watch this current brand of sumo wrestling and it just feels like a piece of you is missing.

With that, I'm going to cherry pick the Komusubi Takayasu - M1 Aonishiki bout first thing.

I think you have to say that Aonishiki is the biggest story right now in between Day 5 and Day 6. The biggest story day to day in sumo can vanish like a fart in the wind, but for now, Aonishiki is generating the most positive headlines. He's got the two wins over Kirishima and Hoshoryu; he picked up the fastest kin-boshi ever; he's from Ukraine; he's got a fresh face, etc., and so he's the easiest sell right now. Onosato is obviously the easiest long-term sell, but they've been milking this Aonishiki quick start for all it's worth...as they should.

His bout today against Takayasu was just so telling that I think it's worth starting there first.

Aonishiki was purposefully flatfooted at the tachi-ai letting Takayasu come to him, and it took a bit, but Takayasu finally moved forward leading with a forearm. Once contact was made the two traded harmless slaps, and you could see that Aonishiki was not trying to do any harm. Problem was that Takayasu wasn't doing much of anything, and so Aonishiki forced the bout to the belt by getting the firm left arm inside. Takayasu was completely upright and in no position to do anything, and Aonishiki--feeling as if he had to do something--began to tug downward on Takayasu's belt, and Takayasu wobbled nearly to the dirt, and so Aonishiki quickly righted the ship voluntarily keeping his dude alive. With Takayasu still hapless, Aonishiki next grabbed a stifling right outer grip on the other side, and this is what it looked like in the center of the ring (Aonishiki is the one on the right):



There is no way that Takayasu could recover from that. No way.  Just look at how upright he is and that left arm of his is rendered completely useless.  Aonishiki already showed that a little dashi-nage was in the cards with that inside left, and Takayasu was at the Ukrainian's complete bidding. However, it was clear that Aonishiki was not trying to win the bout, and so all he could do is duck down like that in the perfect position and wait for the Komusubi to do something. After a few more seconds of jockeying, Takayasu finally began setting up an outer belt throw, but it took like two seconds to formulate. Two seconds in sumo is an eternity, so to watch Aonishiki not counter was a huge tell. Takayasu was doing these little baby steps and was completely vulnerable, but Aonishiki was paid to just stand there, and so Takayasu executed an outer belt throw with no counter pressure coming from Aonishiki even though he could clearly see--like we all could--what Takayasu was setting up.

The result of the throw was Aonishiki's getting slung around and down like a wet rag, and then Takayasu fell on top of him because Aonishiki forgot to let go of the belt...something they'll usually warn you about afterwards. The end result was Takayasu's picking up an improbable win in moving to 5-1 while Aonishiki is saddled with the loss at 4-2.

This bout created a huge paradox in regards to Aonishiki's sumo this first week. Is he the dude that masterfully beat Hoshoryu and Kirishima, or is he the dude who couldn't beat Takayasu when he had him dead to rights?

And that is the whole problem with yaocho. Well, there are other problems as well like it's completely dishonest, unethical, misleading to the fans who pay money to attend, and then the media is forced to outright lie in order to provide cover. But who's counting right?  Beyond all that, yaocho completely destroys the integrity of sumo in the ring, and this bout was a perfect illustration of it.  It is simply impossible for a high IQ person not to notice the huge paradox, and that's where my issue with sumo lies at the moment (wink, wink).

With let, let's rewind back to the beginning where M15 Kotoshoho using a nice, controlled tsuppari attack to move M16 Kayo slowly around the ring and eventually across. It took 10 seconds or so, but KSH was never in danger as he moves to 4-2 with Kayo falling to 0-6.

M14 Kusano shaded a bit to his right against M17 Shishi sending the bout to migi-yotsu, and Shishi used his left arm straightway to reach for an outer grip (pictured there at left). And he could have gotten it, but he pulled that arm back and never tried again, and I knew where we were headed from that point. With Shishi letting up, Kusano used his left outer grip to move Shishi over to the straw, but there was a lot of real estate to cover, and so Shishi had room to plant his left leg and counter with a right scoop throw. He didn't of course and just turned his back to the straw of his own volition and leaned backwards as Kusano collapsed on top of him as seen at right.

Perhaps the best move of the basho so far was Shishi's backwards somersault down to the venue floor because he immediately bounced right back up. Kusano also found himself in a heap on the floor below which happens when there is no counter pressure coming from your opponent. Just a nice yaocho appetizer to get us going as Kusano is gifted 5-1 while Shishi falls to 3-3 and pockets some sweet yen in the process.

Two rookies clashed today in M14 Fujinokawa and M17 Kotoeiho, and the tachi-ai was clean with both dudes hooking up in the hidari-yotsu position, which favored the much taller Kotoeiho. That was particularly manifest by Kotoeiho's firm grip with the left at the back of Fujinokawa's belt, but the Eiho's force-out charge was gentle on purpose, so once FNK was moved back near the straw, Kotoeiho suddenly went limp. And Fujinokawa could sense it to because he suddenly set up an attack along the edge of the dohyo finally "felling" Kotoeiho with a neck throw of all things. The neck throw is about the most improbable winning technique in sumo, and I can't remember the last time I saw one that wasn't part of yaocho.

There were frequent tells all throughout this bout, but one of the biggest was Kotoeiho's choosing not to use that left belt grip to counter the neck throw. I mean, if there was ever a time for a nage-no-uchi-ai, this was it, but Kotoeiho didn't even try to throw thus his landing on his back. The only time a guy should land on his back after a throw is if he was airborne, and the winner had the strength to put him in that position...sorta like this bout last year between Hoshoryu and Onosato:



Fujinokawa has no such strength, especially against such a bigger dude. If you've ever wrestled someone above your weight class, you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, Fujinokawa buys his way to 4-2 while Kotoeiho is even steven at 3-3.

I kinda enjoyed seeing M13 Shodai step into the ring against M16 Mitakeumi...two old-timers who were once Japan's cream of the crop. I know, right? I knew Shodai was going to defer to the hometown boy, but it was still nostalgic. Shodai won the tachi-ai forcing the bout to hidari-yotsu, but instead of pressing forward he began shading backwards. As for Mitakeumi, he didn't have anything established. He was like Onosato...sorta pushing and sorta trying to do yotsu-zumo but really doing nothing but following along with his opponent's retreat. Near the edge, Shodai's muscle memory kicked in and he set up what was really the best move of his career, a counter tsuki-otoshi at the edge:



Mitakeumi was already leaning too far right, but Shodai refrained from following through on the move and backed across the straw giving Mitakeumi the cheap win. I mean, this was carbon copy Onosato sumo today from Mitakeumi: do nothing and let your opponent do all the work. I'm not sure how much Mitakeumi's fake 6-0 start is making a difference here in his hometown. This is what the arena looked like just prior to his match, so people are definitely not showing up early to see him:



The best value of Mitakeumi's run for sure is distracting everyone away from the yaocho sustaining Yoko Ono at the moment. If they can show Mitakeumi winning on the nightly news, it's one less fake bout they have to show higher up the banzuke.

When I was scanning the wires afterwards for pictures, there were five articles about Takayasu for every one about Onosato.  Mitakeumi probably had three articles to every one written about Onosato, and even Fujinokawa got more ink than Onosato at the end of the day.  It's all a necessary distraction until they can get a yusho race going with Onosato firmly on the board.  In the mean time, Shodai falls to 3-3, and he's certainly been on the receiving end of things so what goes around comes around.

M11 Takanosho stopped M12 Asakoryu in his tracks at the tachi-ai with two hands to the neck, and as Asakoryu tried to duck under Takanosho's tsuppari attack, Takanosho reversed gears and pulled his hapless opponent forward and down in mere seconds. Takanosho moves to 3-3 with the easy win while Asakoryu falls to 2-4.

M13 Churanoumi was proactive with an oshi attack against M11 Tokihayate moving the latter around the ring somewhat but not strongly enough to where he could pounce. Tokihayate was simply biding his time until Churanoumi went for a pull, and the instant he did, Tokihayate pushed him across for the gyakuten win. Both dudes finish the day at 3-3.

I saw that one of the 12 bouts the Association posted on YouTube was the M12 Midorifuji - M10 Roga bout, so I knew Midorifuji was going to win or else they wouldn't have wasted their time on it, but I was surprised it wasn't kata-sukashi. Midorifuji actually executed a nice tachi-ai standing toe to toe against Roga but using his arms to push into Roga's upper torso so they didn't have to go chest to chest. As for Roga, he got the right arm inside and tested the left outer grip waters time and time again, and make no mistake, he could have brushed Midorifuji away like a fly and seized that left outer, but he kept coming up just short darn the luck. So with Roga just standing there refraining from attacking or grabbing that outer grip or really doing anything, Midorifuji finally executed a nice kaina-hineri move where he twisted Roga over and down by the insides of his arms. It's a pretty slick move that I don't think we've seen in a while, and it was nicely executed. I thought Midorifuji's sumo today was excellent start to finish, but Roga was just playing along and let him win. Midorifuji is even steven at 3-3 while Roga pockets some extra cash in falling to 2-4.

I'm not going to comment on any more Chiyoshoma bouts until he stops letting up for his opponents.

There's nothing to breakdown with Ura and Tobizaru either. I'll just repeat my previous take that they need Ura to do well as a distraction from the lack of good sumo at the top of the banzuke, so of course he bested Tobizaru today in an exhibition match that sent him to 5-1.

M6 Takerufuji stood straight up at the tachi-ai and was completely useless against M8 Sadanoumi, and fortunately for Takerufuji, Sadanoumi didn't rush forward and get to the inside because it was wide open. Instead, Sadanoumi moved a bit left and offered some playful pulls, and Takerufuji responded with a weak pull of his own that sent the action flowing to the East side of the dohyo. Sadanoumi actually had the right arm inside and could have easily forced Takerufuji across at that point, but instead of taking advantage, he literally ran to the edge of the dohyo himself, put a foot on the straw, and then forced the action back to the center of the ring. As they moved back to the middle, this was Sadanoumi's right hand:



Any time a rikishi refuses to use one of his hands and keeps it open like that, you know he is throwing the bout.  I mean, Takerufuji is leaning back forward after having put on the brakes, so he could have been pulled down, and at worst, Sadanoumi could have grabbed a right outer, but instead, Sadanoumi stayed limp as ever letting Takerufuji grab a left outer and use the right inside position to..uh..force Sadanoumi back and across.

Because Sadanoumi was applying no pressure, he knew he was going down to the floor below and so he took a giant step backwards to break his fall. The timing wasn't perfect, however, and because he had to worry about that landing, he still had Takerufuji's right arm stuck between his body and his left arm and he forgot to let go, so basically Takerufuji's right arm was supporting Sadanoumi's entire weight as he went to the venue floor. Takerufuji was in obvious pain afterwards favoring that right shoulder, and Sadanoumi may have pulled Takerufuji's shoulder out of it's socket.

I know, me and my smart mouth are going to say it again, but one of the very first things I was taught when I started watching sumo wrestling is that somebody always gets hurt when you let up in the ring. This accident should have never happened, and let's hope Takerufuji is okay. His 4-2 record may be good enough to keep him in the division for September if he has to withdraw, but let's give this 24 hours and see where we're at. As for Sadanoumi, he falls to 1-5.

Two rikishi with contrasting styles hooked up today in M5 Hiradoumi and M8 Ichiyamamoto who came in riding a slick 5-0 record on the day. Both rikishi used thrusts from the tachi-ai, but IYM didn't trust his forward moving attack, and so he quickly moved right going for a pull. Hiradoumi stumbled off balance slightly, but as Ichiyamamoto moved in for what he thought would be the kill, Hiradoumi moved to his left and tugged at IYM's outstretched arms and that sent Ichiyamamoto stumbling to the brink. Before he could turn around and recover, Hiradoumi rushed and pushed him out for good. Isn't straight up sumo enjoyable to watch? I was disappointed that IYM didn't trust a forward attack today, but then again, that 5-0 record was highly inflated thanks to yaocho. Hiradoumi exposed that for sure today in moving to 3-3 while Ichiyamamoto suffers his first loss at 5-1.

M5 Meisei forced his bout against M4 Hakuohho to hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and as Hakuohho tried to wriggle out of the hold, the two traded places in the dohyo with Meisei resuming the left inside position and grabbing a firm right outer grip. Hakuohho was had at this point with his back against the straw, but instead of forcing Hakuohho back that last step, Meisei faked a few charges and then let the bout flow back into the center of the ring easy as you please. And there the two stood for 2 minutes and 20 seconds (yes, I timed it). Meisei was obviously throwing the bout and waiting for Hakuohho to make a move, but the dude couldn't and so Meisei finally forced the action to flow over to the edge where he let Hakuohho executed a very tired inside belt throw, and instead of countering with the outside right, Meisei just let it go and allowed himself to be dumped across the straw. As if. This was an easy yaocho call if I've ever seen one (and I've seen one!!) as Hakuohho begs is way to 3-3 while Meisei falls to 2-4.

You saw what M6 Gonoyama did to Hakuohho, and contrast that with the way that M4 Tamawashi handled Gonoyama today. In a straight up bout, Tamawashi went for the throat from the tachi-ai standing Gonoyama upright, and he persisted with that chokehold in driving Gonoyama back quickly. Gonoyama gave it the college try, and the dude can certainly take a punch, but he was no match for Tamawashi here and was thrown down in a matter of seconds oshi-taoshi style.

I just don't see how it's possible to watch Tamawashi get lightly beat by Takerufuji yesterday and then come back today and destroy Gonoyama as he did and not realize that something is amiss. Tamawashi moves to a stellar 5-1 while Gonoyama will regroup now at 4-2.

M2 Ohho was having his way against M1 Wakamotoharu using a nice tsuppari attack to connect with some potent jabs. WMH tried to fight back, but he could never get close due to Ohho's length. The one thing that was obvious from the start was that Ohho wasn't using his lower body to actually push Wakamotoharu back near the straw so after about five seconds of slapping WMH silly, Ohho voluntarily backed his way to the straw and waited there for Wakamotoharu to go for a pull. He did by swiping down with the right arm, and it hardly connected, but that was Ohho's cue to flop forward and down towards the center of the ring. As if. Both rikishi end the day at 2-4.

M3 Kinbohzan looked to put two hands into Sekiwake Kirishima's neck from the tachi-ai, but Kirishima stuck his left palm up and into Kinbohzan's right armpit, and when the Sekiwake shaded a bit left, Kinbohzan's momentum was still moving forward, and so this was a very easy push down from behind by Kirishima as Kinbohzan lightly rolled off of the dohyo in a controlled matter. Hmm. Kirishima improves to 5-1 with the win while Kinbohzan rolls to 1-5.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage was paired against Komusubi Ohshoma, and the Komusubi kept his hands low and in the way of Wakatakakage's getting to the inside straightway, but soon enough Ohshoma stood upright and began a retreat keeping his hands out wide, which gifted Wakatakakage moro-zashi, and from there, Ohshoma simply walked back and across not bothering to counter as Wakatakakage hopped along on two feet in kind. Wakatakakage oils his way to 3-3 with the gift while Ohshoma falls to 1-5.

M2 Abi pretended to henka to his left, but all he did was jump upright and expose his left inside to his opponent. Kotozakura easily inserted his right arm, and then in tandem, Kotozakura pressed forward and Abi moved backwards until he was across the straw. No counter sumo from Abi and no hunkering down. It was three seconds of total inaction that gifted Kotozakura a 4-2 record. Abi falls to 3-3 in defeat, and the dude curiously forgot about his moro-te-zuki tachi-ai.

I normally don't like to post pics from below the dohyo, but look at that pic at right and see if you can detect one dude trying and the other dude just standing there nonchalant.

In the day's final contest, MM3 Onokatsu showed Onosato his palms up high lightly slapping them against Yoko Ono's shoulders. As for Onosato, he wasn't looking to thrust from the tachi-ai nor was he looking to get chest to chest, so the two softly clashed at the start and then Onokatsu began to backpedal with Onosato in tow and it took two harmless seconds. They ruled it oshi-dashi but Onosato didn't even go for a push start to finish. Funny thing is, he didn't get to the inside either as the two dudes' chests never did touch. These Onosato bouts are like an amalgamation of hands and arms flailing and bodies moving, but nothing definitive ever happens. I just don't know what to say about this one other than it was not a contested bout of sumo. The end results is Onosato's safely moving to 5-1 while Onokatsu falls to 1-5.

As I mentioned previously, Onosato is not dominating the headlines right now as they are using other gimmick rikishi as distractions, and that pic above was the only pic I came across that showed both rikishi in Onosato's bout.

We'll see what the weekend brings.

Nagoya Basho Day 5 Comments
As expected, Hoshoryu announced his withdrawal from the tournament on the morning of Day 5. I was looking at the news wires and clicked two separate reports and neither listed an injury. I'm sure an injury was stated and that it has been reported in most news outlets, but I'm not going to bother to look it up because we all know that Hoshoryu is not injured. I have no idea why the Yokozuna chose to start the basho the way he did and then eventually withdraw, but I think two factors were in play. 1) The temperatures at the Nagoya Basho are always unbearable, and so he simply didn't want to deal with the heat. And 2) He's so disgusted at the way he's being asked to lower the bar in his sumo and defer to clods like Onosato that he's only going to give the bare minimum that's required and nothing more.

All of this fake sumo and the fake banzuke wear on me too, so you can imagine what it's like to be Hoshoryu...a clearly superior rikishi who is asked to always perform in an inferior manner. All it takes is one little thing--like the summer heat--for him to say "I'm done" and then exit the building.

Losing Hoshoryu is a blow to the basho because you really need a strong rikishi to set the pace for the yusho race down the stretch. I thought that Onosato lost a lot of the perceived street cred he had coming into the basho with his horrible performance against Ohho yesterday, and so losing a legit dude who can actually give credibility to the sport with his sumo in a dude like Hoshoryu is a big loss in my opinion.

Hoshoryu's withdrawal and Onosato's loss to Ohho will all be forgotten by the time we head into the weekend, so enough of that; let's examine the Day 5 bouts.

The day began with M16 Mitakeumi taking on M15 Kotoshoho, and the latter kept his hands high and wide giving Mitakeumi moro-zashi. Mitakeumi wasn't exactly kicking ass and taking names, however, and so Kotoshoho began moving around the perimeter to his right all the while leaving his insides exposed. Mitakeumi kept up, but it was clear that KSH was doing the movement on his own and after a full turn around the ring, Mitakeumi sent the willing Kotoshoho (3-2) back and across with a forearm shove. I was wondering why everyone was throwing their bouts in favor of Mitakeumi this basho, and then it hit me; the dude is from Nagoya. This is just a cheap ploy to try and keep the locals more interested than they might otherwise be as Mitakeumi is gifted 5-0.

M13 Shodai's tachi-ai was light and non-committal as he allowed rookie M17 Kotoeiho to come forward, and as Shodai breezed to his right looking to do nothing, the rookie grabbed a right outer grip and ushered Shodai across as if the former Ozeki wasn't even trying. It's because he wasn't...imagine that as both dudes finish the day at 3-2.

M16 Kayo's tachi-ai was even worse than Shodai's the previous bout, but the red flag here is that Kayo was actually trying. His opponent, M13 Churanoumi, charged hard enough to throw Kayo out of sorts in half a second, and so the sophomore rookie immediately moved left in an effort to sneak attack a pull, but Churanoumi read it like a dirty manga on the subway and had Kayo pushed to the side and across is under two seconds. Churanoumi moves to 3-2 with the easy win while Kayo falls to 0-5.

Before we move on, I can't believe how big of a stink the media was making about the fact that both of these guys hail from Okinawa making it an all Okinawan-taiketsu.  Who cares?  They do know that we're talking about Kayo and Churanoumi here don't they?  They actually do, but I get the sense that Sumo is really grabbing for any headlines they can early on.

M12 Asakoryu actually bested M14 Kusano at the tachi-ai sticking a paw into the rookie's throat, and with his opponent upright, Asakoryu was able to slap Kusano off balance at the back of his right shoulder and then slip to Kusano's right side setting up a nice tsuki into that same back shoulder. The move had Kusano set up for the kill turned 90 degrees to the side, but instead of doing further damage, Asakoryu suddenly relented and spread his arms wide, and so Kusano easily recovered, got the right arm inside, and forced Asakoryu across without resistance. Sheesh, when Asakoryu has to let you win, you know your sumo's got issues. Kusano is gifted 4-1 while Asakoryu falls to 2-3.

Kusano has been in sumo for just one year now, so don't be surprised if he tops Aonishiki's kin-boshi record we talked about yesterday in the coming months. And before we move on, here's a memo to the NHK English announcers:  his name is not pronounced KOOSA-no.

M12 Midorifuji and M14 Fujinokawa exchanged a few cat slaps from the tachi-ai before Midorifuji moved slightly to his right without actually doing anything. With Midorifuji wide open, the rookie moved in for moro-zashi, and Midorifuji responded by grabbing a left outer grip and then he put his right arm as high as possible around Fujinokawa's dome. There was a pause for a second or two and then Fujinokawa lifted Midorifuji off of his feet and walked him over and out tsuri-dashi style. Well, it looked more like a tsuri-dashi in midget wrestling, but whatever. Um, yeah, I guess it looked good, but Midorifuji was not trying to win this bout as he falls to 2-3 while Fujinokawa moves to 3-2.

M9 Chiyoshoma (0-5) obviously threw his bout against M11 Tokihayate (2-3) so nuff said there.

M11 Takanosho caught M9 Ura in a dual chokehold from the tachi-ai moving Ura back near the edge, but then Takanosho moved his hands down harmlessly near Ura's shoulders and stopped applying pressure altogether. That was Ura's cue to dart left and go for a bad pull really, but Takanosho was playing along, so he stumbled over to the edge of his own volition and waited for one more sideways tap from Ura before jumping into the first row.

I think what could be happening here as Ura moves to a laughable 4-1 is that with Onosato having burned a lot of goodwill during his Yokozuna run, the powers that be might be worried that Onosato will have to assume a few more losses as payback, and so they're using Mitakeumi's fake 5-0 start and this fake 4-1 start from Ura as distractions.  Oh, and did you know both Kayo and Churanoumi are from Okinawa?!! Takanosho takes one for team sumo here in falling to 2-3.

One of the better bouts of the day was the M10 Roga - M8 Ichiyamamoto contest even though Roga was mukiryoku. The two traded light tsuppari from the start before hooking up in migi-yotsu, and Roga gave up the left outer grip easily without bothering to grab a left outer of his own. IYM isn't even a belt guy, and Roga is one of the better ones on the banzuke, and it was clear he was letting Ichiyamamoto do his thang. The yotsu contest lasted for a bout a minute with Ichiyamamoto looking for a path of attack while Roga faked a few grabs for the left outer, but the two finally found themselves on the other side of the dohyo where Roga agreed to be forced straight back and across without countering. If you know yotsu-zumo and you watch Roga's legs and how he didn't use them and how he didn't use that nice right inside position, you can tell he wasn't trying to win, but whatever. It was still a solid bout as Ichiyamamoto is an undeserved 5-0 while Roga quietly assumes 2-3.

The best bout of the day occurred next with M8 Sadanoumi taking on M10 Atamifuji, and the two hooked up in migi-yotsu where Sadanoumi had the left outer grip. Atamifuji flirted a bit with a left outer of his own, but he abandoned it and instead used the left wrapped tightly around Sadanoumi's right arm to lift him up higher than he wanted to be. In essence, Atamifuji took away Sadanoumi's lower body with that move, and so the two danced around a bit before Sadanoumi went for a last gasp trip of the Hutt. That was the signal that Sadanoumi was spent, and so Atamifuji finally grabbed an outer grip, wrenched Sadanoumi back to the edge, and then forced him across. Textbook.

Wow, that was so well executed. It was probably the best bout of the tournament so far...and it received zero coverage afterwards.  But did you guys now that Asanoyama is now fighting again in Makushita?  Atami the Hutt moves to 3-2 while Sadanoumi falls to 1-4.

Nothing to break down in the M5 Hiradoumi (2-3) - M7 Tobizaru (2-3) since it wasn't competitive.

M4 Tamawashi kept his hands high and wide at the tachi-ai against M6 Takerufuji signaling his intentions early. As the two traded tsuppari, you could see that Tamawashi's thrusts were at the sides of Takerufuji's cheeks or at the top of his shoulders...thrusts that sorta connected but mostly didn't. As for Takerufuji, his thrusts were quite defensive, but once Tamawashi started slowly backing his way towards the straw, Takerufuji was able to move forward and "push" across his mukiryoku opponent. Tamawashi chooses not to be the story at the end of the Jobansen accepting a 4-1 record instead of a 5-0 start. As for Takerufuji, this was a ho hum effort that required Tamawashi to move backwards before the kid could move forward. He finishes the day above .500 at 3-2.

It's always nice to see a rikishi go 100%, and that's what M6 Gonoyama did today against M4 Hakuohho. Up to this point, Hakuohho's tachi-ai have been bad. The dude tends to stand too upright and his hands are always high, and he did that today against Gonoyama and paid the price. I mean, we haven't seen a dude get his ass kicked that badly this entire basho as Gonoyama stormed into Hakuohho from the initial charge and freight trained him straight back onto the hana-michi from which he came. Any time you make the yobi-dashi at the corner of the dohyo flee in fear with clutching his little white stool, you know it's been a good day at the office, and that was the case for Gonoyama who moves to 4-1 with the excellent display of sumo while Hakuohho falls to 2-3.

Question: Why has Onosato never done that to an opponent?

M5 Meisei and M3 Kinbohzan hooked up in gappuri migi-yotsu today meaning both had right insides and left outer grips. Curiously, neither dude went for any thrusts from the tachi-ai, and they're both pushers, so that was a tell. Anyway, with both chest to chest, Kinbohzan slowly backed up near the edge, and then sorta went for a left outer belt throw, but instead of planting his right foot to stabilize the throw, he just started leaning backwards. As he did, Meisei put his right leg against Kinbohzan's left and tripped him back for good. I mean, if neutralizing a guy's uwate-nage attempt was that easy with a soto-gake, we wouldn't see anyone win by uwate-nage again. In this finish, however, Kinbohzan's footwork and movement were incorrect thus the easy trip down in favor of Meisei who is gifted 2-3 while Kinbohzan harmlessly falls to 1-4.  I mean, does anyone really think that Kinbohzan can only win one bout the first five days if he was really trying to win them all?

In a bland affair, Komusubi Ohshoma and M1 Wakamotoharu largely stood upright and traded defensive tsuppari, and when that happens, you know both dudes are looking to pull. And that was the case after a few seconds. With Wakamotoharu starting to advance slowly, Ohshoma quickly moved to his right and scored on a predictable pull down leaving both rikishi 1-4.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage took advantage of Komusubi Takayasu's lack of speed and inability to bend over and defend himself at the tachi-ai to get the left arm inside and a right outer grip from the tachi-ai. From there, Wakatakakage attempted a dashi-nage with the right outer, but it was just half-assed and he never completed the move. The dashi-nage is about the most effective move you can execute against Takayasu because the dude is so old and stiff that he can't defend it, but Wakatakakage stopped the move just short of the straw keeping Takayasu in bounds allowing the bout to go to migi-yotsu. Takayasu was still way too high for his own good at that point, but Wakatakakage agreed to let the action flow back to the center of the ring instead of trying to force Takayasu back, and with Wakatakakage just standing there ducking low, the pull down attempt eventually came from the Walking Carpet. It wasn't great, but it didn't need to be as Wakatakakage just walked over to the edge and let Takayasu push him across that last step. Something was arranged prior to this bout as Takayasu moves to an ill-gotten 4-1 with Wakatakakage falling to 2-3.

M1 Aonishiki was flat-footed and completely upright at the tachi-ai not to mention there for the taking against Sekiwake Kirishima, but the Sekiwake kept his hands high in an effort to gift the Ukrainian the inside. Aonishiki was in no position to take it, however, and so Kirishima offered a quick side slap into Aonishiki's face that connected well, and that's a move you use to distract your opponent for an instant so you can get to the inside. Kirishima of course refrained from getting inside, and so I knew he was throwing it at that point.

Instead of getting to the belt, Kirishima pretended to be slapping away up high waiting for Aonishiki to make a move, but the youngster didn't, and so Kirishima began backing up, and that was Aonishiki's cue to finally move forward with a tsuppari attack. Because Aonishiki didn't cause Kirishima's retreat, he couldn't take advantage of it, and his thrusts weren't connecting, and so Kirishima moved to his left flirting with the left inside position and then a right kote-nage grip. You name it...it was all wide open for the Sekiwake, but he didn't take advantage of anything. They finally hooked back up in the center of the ring with both ducked down low, Kirishima was actually in position with his right foot forward and left foot back to go for a right outer grip. He didn't go for the move, but Aonishiki wasn't setting anything up either, and so Kirishima stealthily moved his left foot forward and aligned it with his right totally eliminating any balance and leverage, and as soon as Aonishiki saw that gift, he swept his right arm into Kirishima's inside knee area, and the Sekiwake dutifully put his right knee to the dirt.

Nice try yous too, but all you have to do is focus on Kirishima's footwork at the end. Well, and everything else I mentioned previous to that. Anyway, the result is Kirishima agreeing to his first loss at 4-1 while Aonishiki improves to that same mark. So...we have Mitakeumi, Ura, and now Aonishiki as cheap storylines to fill in the gaps if the yusho race starts sucking in Week 2. Before we move on, have you noticed that both of Aonishiki's snazzy wins have come against elite Mongolians who were simply letting up for him?

M3 Onokatsu charged into Kotozakura well getting the right arm inside and left outer grip. Wait...no, he released that left outer grip in an instant signaling his intentions from the start. With Kotozakura unable to press the action, Onokatsu went for a maki-kae one second in...something you never see in sumo because a maki-kae is a last ditch effort after a rikishi has exhausted all other options. By now, it was plainly obvious that Onokatsu was throwing the bout, and as part of his maki-kae, he switched places in the ring with Zak and then backed his way to the edge. With Kotozakura in tow, the final "force out" was academic. Kotozakura ekes his way to 3-2 after the yaocho while Onokatsu settles for 1-4.

Finally, M2 Abi caught Onosato with two hands at the neck from the tachi-ai, but instead of driving forward with his legs, he backed up going for a meaningless swipe down that didn't even come close to connecting. With Abi having backed himself all the way up to the straw, Onosato finally caught him with a right paw to the upper left tit to push Abi across and make the ending look real.

This is what we're used to with Yoko Ono. Lose the tachi-ai; have your opponent retreat for no reason; then make your first legit contact at the edge when your opponent has already given himself up. Whew, we can all rest easy again as Onosato moves to 4-1 with Abi graciously falling to 3-2. No doubt, a good chunk of the kensho money is headed Abi's way.

Nagoya Basho Day 4 Comments
After Day 3 as I was looking for pictures to post in my report, I came across a graphic that showed the fastest rikishi to earn kin-boshi (a win over a Yokozuna from the Maegashira ranks) who made their debut from the Jonokuchi division, or lowest rank on the banzuke. With Aonishiki's fake win over Hoshoryu yesterday, he assumed the number one spot on the chart needing just 12 total tournaments to defeat a Yokozuna. The graphic listed the top 6 fastest rikishi to earn kin-boshi, and the graphic is quite telling:



The first column is the list of rikishi who earned speedy kin-boshi as follows: Aonishiki (12 basho), Konishiki and Tomokaze (both needing 13 basho), and then the three yayhoos tied for fourth are Hokutofuji, Osunaarashi, and Ura who all needed 15 basho.

The third column over is their rank at the time, which is meaningless, and the fourth column lists the year it happened (1984 for Konishiki and then the rest occurred this century).

The fifth column which I have neatly circled in purple pen lists the Yokozuna who were defeated, and that's an important column. Here is the list top to bottom:

Hoshoryu
Takanosato
Kakuryu
Kakuryu
Kakuryu
Harumafuji

The last column on the chart is the record over the 15 days of the rikishi in the first column, but this column is meaningless as well.

The text at the very bottom of the chart explains that this data goes back to 1958 when Sumo first implemented the current 6 basho per year system, and it does not account for rikishi who debuted in the Makushita rank.

So...what's really interesting about this chart are these facts:

* 5 of the 6 Yokozuna who lost were foreign rikishi
* With the exception of Konishiki in 1984, all incidents occurred in 2014 or later
* The only rikishi scoring the kin-boshi whose career was noteworthy is Konishiki

The Konishiki line on that chart is the only organic feat where a young rikishi legitimately beat a Yokozuna, and that's why it occurred in 1984.

All incidents after that occurred in 2014 or later, and what was the significance of 2014?  Who was the most popular rikishi in sumo in 2014?

That's right, it was none other than Endoh. Endoh was the first rikishi whose career and subsequent popularity was created solely through yaocho. He was the litmus test. If they could make him a star through yaocho and have the fans buy into it hook, line, and sinker, then the Association now had its formula to start sending more Japanese rikishi up the banzuke, and then this would ultimately lead to the yusho by Kotoshogiku in 2016...the first time a Japanese rikishi had taken the yusho in 10 years.

From Hatsu 2006 to Kyushu 2015, Japanese rikishi took 0% of the yusho.

From Haru 2016 to Natsu 2025, Japanese rikishi have won 22 of the 55 tournaments for a percentage of exactly 40%

So what changed? How do you go from 0% one decade to 40% the next decade?

When you think about that and also note that it's strictly foreign Yokozuna giving up the kin-boshi this century, it all becomes clear. So on one hand, the media was using this chart to drum up sensational headlines, but what they were also doing unexpectedly for people who care to notice is revealing a trend line that further illustrates the prominent part that yaocho plays in sumo today.

Okay, with that behind us, we must start with the final bout of the day that involved Onosato and M2 Ohho because we can draw so many points from this bout. Ohho was not aggressive at the tachi-ai, but he's a rikishi who doesn't need to be. He's big enough that most of the foreign rikishi can't blow him off of the starting lines. They can easily get to the inside of him and beat him from the belt, but moving him around with tsuppari is not easy.

As a result of the tachi-ai, Onosato moved forward into Ohho's space, but Yoko Ono wasn't thrusting nor was he looking to get to the belt. Why? Because he can't. The majority of his sumo bouts in his short Makuuchi career are of him moving forward with his elbows bent a bit and hands pointed forward, but he doesn't actually do anything. He relies on his opponents to backpedal, which they do 90% of the time, and then it's perceived as a powerful win for Onosato because the media and the announcers continue to say as much.

In today's bout, Ohho briefly flirted with a right arm inside but then agreed to back up a step in order to read his opponent's attack. After two seconds when it was clear that there would be no attack, Ohho began a series of defensive tsuppari, and Onosato honestly looked frightened and started giving up ground to the M2. After Onosato's retreat for a few steps, Ohho could smell blood, and Onosato knew it, so he started to panic and sort of go for slapdowns, but they were entirely ineffective because the dude never has to legitimately slap someone down against their will in a real bout.

With Ohho pressing forward, Onosato went into literal fraidy cat mode and backed up to his right hoping to pull, but the pulls wouldn't come to fruition because he's rarely put in a position like this. As a result, with Ohho on the prowl, Yoko Ono carelessly stepped out of the ring as he looked to evade laterally giving Ohho the instant win and creating a very awkward moment live because those who didn't catch the careless step-out saw Onosato simply give up.

And then one more point at the end of the bout that probably everybody missed: the gyoji instinctively pointed towards Onosato as if he had won the bout, but then he quickly reversed his decision and pointed in favor of Ohho. The reason he did that is because even the refs are so conditioned to Onosato being a strong rikishi and dominating his bouts, he pointed Yoko's way out of muscle memory.

Wow, what a terrible way to end the day, and guess which bout is going to end up on the nightly news shows?

This is the entire problem of creating these Japanese Ozeki and especially Yokozuna who are completely worthless when it comes to actual sumo. They are going to get exposed a few times a basho, and this bout today essentially took away any steam that this tournament had generated over the first four days. It also leaves the diehards with questions, and they should be asking those questions.

As to why Ohho did not let Yoko Ono win today, it could be from the history of Ohho's bloodline, and I'm not talking about Taiho. Ohho's father is the former Takatoriki, who was expelled from sumo as an oyakata for gambling (tobaku) on baseball and there were likely some ties to the yakuza as well. Takatoriki was a stablemate of Takanohana, a rikishi also was expelled from sumo for attempting to go against the system...both when he tried to shake up the election for members to the board and then the whole Takanoiwa scandal. There's a rebel faction out there of a few oyakata who were on Takanohana's side, and they are not going to comply with the system in all circumstances, and that could be why the Ohho camp decided to go all out today.

It also gives Ohho a kin-boshi, and it does give him a Yokozuna scalp I suppose to bolster his resume. He also received a stack of kensho filled with cash money so there is always incentive to beat Onosato. The result saddles Onosato with his first loss at 3-1, but the optics of this bout were far more damning than his fake record. As for Ohho, he picks up his first win of the basho moving to 1-3, and there's another talking point...how does a Yokozuna lose to a winless rank and file rikishi, and not only lose, but lose in that fashion?

Lies will always be exposed in the end, and it happened today to end the festivities.

In the penultimate bout, Yokozuna Hoshoryu continued his yaocho ways against M2 Abi where the Mongolian kept his hands up high from the tachi-ai allowing Abi's firehose tsuppari to connect and send the Yokozuna back and to his right. At any point, Hoshoryu could have swiped away those arms or got under them for moro-zashi, but he just went with the flow and then actually tugged at Abi's extended right arm at the edge pulling Abi into Hoshoryu's own body for good measure.

Why Hoshoryu is choosing to do this I don't know, but I'm afraid we're only get to see one great basho from this Yokozuna per year. The rest of the time he's going to have to lower his standard to bring himself down to Onosato's very basic level of sumo, and that has been the case the entire basho for Hoshoryu. He can turn it on whenever he chooses, but he is obviously not choosing to do so here. The results is Abi's moving to 3-1, and you can't fault Abi for that nice, straight forward attack. He did his job. It's just that Hoshoryu could have neutralized that attack and countered at any point, an he chose not to. At 1-3 now, we'll see what Hoshoryu decides to do, but the narrative has officially been established here in Nagoya that even Yokozuna have their off days.

The tachi-ai between Kotozakura and M1 Wakamotoharu was slow developing, and in the end Kotozakura got the left arm inside and the two tightly kept their arms on the front side in tight...Wakamotoharu looking for his own left inside position and Kotozakura trying to deny it. They stood this way for about 12 seconds and then Wakamotoharu tested the force out waters causing Zak to go for a slight pull, and as the two regrouped, Wakamotoharu found himself with the right inside position and left outer grip. Kotozakura simply didn't have the sumo skills to recover at this point, but Wakamotoharu was noticeably not attacking. He could have executed a force-out charge or gone for a dashi-nage, but he just stood there. At one point, Kotozakura looked to maki-kae with the left arm, but he pulled it back a second later. During that exchange, Wakamotoharu was still standing around like a bump on a log--purposefully, and so when Kotozakura went for the next maki-kae, Wakamotoharu not only let him have it but he also started backing up of his own volition making the force-out charge from Kotozakura appear seamless.

Wakamotoharu was clearly mukiryoku here. Choosing not to execute anything despite that advantageous position was one clue but then not even attempting a counter move near the end was also a tell. I guess Kotozakura's got a rank to maintain so they bought this win in pushing Kotozakura to 2-2 while Wakamotoharu knows his place at 1-3.

M1 Aonishiki kept his head low at the tachi-ai as he pushed Sekiwake Wakatakakage upright, and WTK simply didn't have the tools to knock Aonishiki off balance or get to his inside. As a result, Aonishiki plowed forward pushing with those outstretched arms, and there was nowhere for Wakatakakage to go but back and across in about four seconds. This was very nice sumo from Aonishiki who improves to 3-1 while Wakatakakage was completely hapless here in falling to 2-2.

Sekiwake Kirishima and Komusubi Ohshoma hooked up in migi-yotsu from the start where Kirishima also enjoyed the left outer grip. He let it go, but when Ohshoma wasn't applying any forward pressure, he had nothing else to do with that left arm, so he grabbed the outer again. As for Ohshoma, he was far away from his own left outer on the far side, and so it was up to Kirishima to decide the fate of this bout. As the bout wore on in the middle of the ring, Ohshoma's right inside position went from shallow to non-existent in about 15 seconds, and once Kirishima had erased that inside presence by his foe, he executed a swift force-out attack that Ohshoma couldn't answer. Kirishima could have ended this bout in five seconds if he had wanted, but oh well. He moves to 4-0 and more importantly, he's largely exhibiting textbook sumo. As for Ohshoma, he falls to 0-4 in defeat.

M3 Onokatsu kept his hands high and wide at the tachi-ai allowing Komusubi Takayasu to get the firm left inside position and a right outer grip on the far side. I guess Onokatsu technically had the left inside as well, but he kept the limb about wrist deep and wasn't using it to counter of inflict any damage, and so once Takayasu recovered from the initial charge, he mounted a force-out attack and Onokatsu complied by walking back and across just as fast Takayasu could move forward. There was zero effort here from Onokatsu today as he chooses to fall to 1-3 while Takayasu pads his fake record at 3-1.

M4 Hakuohho and M4 Tamawashi exchanged tsuppari at the tachi-ai today, and then Tamawashi shifted into a higher gear and sent Hakuohho back once, twice, three times a lady. Hakuohho looked to set up a desperation pull at the edge, but he was too far gone. It would actually be nice to see Tamawashi take the yusho here in Nagoya. With the easy win today he moves to 4-0 while Hakuohho falls to 2-2.

Let's see what happens with Onosato for the next few days. In order for someone with such a lack of talent to yusho two basho in a row and rise to the Yokozuna rank, a lot of money has to be spent and a lot of favors are asked. When some of those favors are called in, the result will be a bad basho for Yoko Ono, and so a Tamawashi yusho run would actually feel like a fresh storyline.

M6 Takerufuji and M6 Gonoyama exhibited a nice tachi-ai with both rikishi looking to use tsuppari. After exchanging shoves, Takerufuji was able to mount a tsuki-otoshi attack pushing at the back of Gonoyama's left shoulder sending Gonoyama towards the edge, but before Takerufuji could move in for the kill, Gonoyama planted both feet solidly inside the Tawara and yanked Takerufuji's left arm pulling Takerufuji across the straw and down before Gonoyama lost his footing.

They pointed in the direction of Takerufuji, but a mono-ii was called and video showed that Gonoyama clearly won the bout. I actually thought this was one of Takerufuji's better performances in his entire career. He wasn't able to finish because he's not a finisher, and that will happen when so much of your sumo is compromised, but his tachi-ai was good and there was a nice-sounding exchange of flesh colliding in this bout from the start. Good stuff here as Gonoyama moves to 3-1 while Takerufuji falls to 2-2.

M8 Ichiyamamoto easily dismantled M9 Ura today keeping Ura at bay with his long arms and threatening a pull if Ura got too close. After a few seconds of realizing he was going to get to the inside, Ura began to retreat looking for pull opportunities, but Ichiyamamoto got his tsuppari attack in motion and had Ura sent into the second row in about six seconds. Ura got his ass kicked here so badly he didn't even have time to do one of those goofy somersaults or cartwheels. Thank goodness as he falls to 3-1 while Ichiyamamoto is a cool 4-0 if ya need him.

M10 Roga showed exactly what to do today if you want to guarantee a loss in sumo as he kept both arms high and wide against M10 Takanosho at the tachi-ai. With Roga not even trying, Takanosho was able to crush his way into moro-zashi and dispatch Roga to the side and out in about two seconds. Unfortunately, we see way too many rikishi use the tactics exhibited by Roga today when they throw their bouts, and that was the case here even though Takanosho is still a very capable rikishi. The end result is both dudes landing on 2-2.

M15 Kotoshoho also employed the tactic of keeping his hands high and wide against M14 Fujinokawa, but the rookie doesn't have the size or ability to do what Takanosho did, and so the two slapped at each other and danced around wildly with Kotoshoho trying to set himself up, but Fujinokawa's final pushout attempt was too unstable and he ended up crashing out of the ring just as Kotoshoho fell back. This was one of those bouts that truly ended in a tie albeit an ugly tie, and so they ordered a rematch.

For Round 2, Kotoshoho realized that he couldn't make it appear so close, and so after trading a few slaps, he just took the knee of his own volition giving the rookie the cheap, unearned win at 2-2. As for Kotoshoho, he had plenty of room to sell in falling to 3-1.

M14 Kusano was finally paired against an opponent that he can beat straight up in M16 Kayo. The bout was ugly for sure, and Kusano's tachi-ai was awful as he tried to do tsuppari but his hands slipped up high gifting Kayo the inside. Kayo briefly got an arm inside and looked to force his opponent back but there was too much room to cover and Kusano was able to slip to the side. From there, it was really ugly sumo with Kayo pulling at Kusano's arm for no reason, and then the two traded very light slaps whose purpose was to set up a pull. Fortunately for Kusano, Kayo's got the stamina of a 55 year-old guy (I should know!!) and he tired quickly, and once you could see him falter, Kusano rushed in for moro-zashi and scored the easy win in the end.

Kusano took the long road to get there, but the dude doesn't have the sumo skills to destroy a hapless guy like Kayo in three or four seconds, so were forced to watch a drawn out bout with very few sumo skills on display to see Kusano pick up a legit win. He moves to 3-1 with the victory while Kayo falls to 0-4.

And those 12 bouts were the contests that the Sumo Association posted on their official YouTube site today.

I'll end here due to the length of my intro, but of the eight bouts I didn't cover, Atamifuji's effort against Tokihayate and Churanoumi's effort against Asakoryu are worth watching.

Keep an eye out for the announcement of Hoshoryu's withdrawal once they can come up with an injury excuse.

Nagoya Basho Day 3 Comments
I find that I'm turning more and more to the Sumo Association's official YouTube channel to watch the bouts. There is no analysis and there are no replays, but I don't need an analyst to tell me one thing while I'm clearly watching another. Furthermore, if I want to see a replay, I can wait for NHK World to show their first broadcast, which occurs about 10:30 AM my time. One of the best things I'm noticing about the Sumo Association's YouTube channel is that it gives me actual number; it gives me the number of streams for each bout, and so I'm going to try and do a little bit of data analytics based off those numbers moving forward to see if I can notice some trends.

There was a big trend today that I hadn't seen before, but more on that later.

The day began with M17 Kotoeiho taking on M16 Mitakeumi, and the rookie was flat-footed at the tachi-ai not really even bothering to come forward, and so Mitakeumi pounced knocking Kotoeiho back once, twice, three times a lady. I haven't seen enough of the Eiho to really know if this was fixed or not. I don't think it was. I think the veteran Mitakeumi knew what he was facing, and he put together a very nice forward oshi attack in moving to 3-0. As for Kotoeiho, he falls to 1-2.

M16 Kayo proved to be a handful for M17 Shishi at the tachi-ai, and so Shishi immediately went for a swipedown that left him vulnerable. Kayo was able to rush forward and get the left inside, but then he immediately panicked and went for a stupid pull setting himself up at the edge. At that point, Shishi caught Kayo with two hams to the jaw, and I don't know if Kayo was seeing stars from that or if he was simply gassed after three seconds of work, but he leaned on Shishi's body for support, and the Ukrainian was extremely gentlemanly in nudging Kayo back that last half step and holding onto him so he wouldn't plop backwards off the dohyo altogether. Shishi moves to 2-1 with the nice comeback win while Kayo falls to 0-3, and this dude has serious issues with his sumo. The more I see him this basho, the more farcical those seven wins in May become.

M16 Hidenoumi failed to step forward at the tachi-ai let alone lean forward towards rookie, M15 Fujinokawa, and so the result was Hidenoumi keeping his hands wide allowing the rookie to get moro-zashi. Once obtained, it was clear that Fujinokawa could do nothing with it. And I mean nothing. Hidenoumi just stood there as Fujinokawa probably half shat himself he was exerting that much pressure into his opponent, but Hidenoumi wouldn't budge. Finally, after about 10 seconds Hidenoumi put his right arm up around Fujinokawa's dome as if to set up a kubi-nage, but instead of executing that, he just walked back and across.

This bout resembled a bout of butsukari-geiko during morning practice when the attacking dude is so spent that he's at the complete mercy of the dude conducting the exercise. Thankfully for Fujinokawa (1-2), Hidenoumi (0-3) just backed up giving the rook the win.

M14 Kusano was up next taking on M15 Kotoshoho, and the two clashed well coming away in the migi-yotsu position where Kotoshoho gifted Kusano the left outer grip. As Kotoshoho looked to grab a left outer of his own, Kusano moved to the other side of the dohyo but really couldn't swing his foe off balance in the process. Due to the momentum shift, Kotoshoho went for an early right scoop throw that had Kusano off balance and 100% served up, but Kotoshoho let him survive. At that point, I thought the bout would be thrown because Kotoshoho had enough momentum to sling Kusano over into the salt basket in the corner of the dohyo, but he let him off the hook and allowed the action to move back to the center of the ring. From there, KSH continued to refrain from grabbing the left outer, but it was clear that Kusano had no method of attack against his foe.

After a brief stalemate, Kusano finally went for a weak dashi-nage with the outer grip, but he set himself up in the process at the edge, and when Kotoshoho didn't simply push him across for the easy win, I was convinced they were going to throw this one in favor of the rookie. The problem was that as Kusano tried to escape back towards the center of the ring, Kotoshoho had him locked up with a grip at the back of the belt, and there was no way Kusano could recover from the Brokeback position. Kotoshoho still went soft on the rookie but finally nudged him across in the end.

I'm not sure what was going through Kotoshoho's head in this one, but he had multiple chances to obliterate the rookie but he kept letting him off the hook. I think the key takeaway here as we analyze the sumo is how little Kusano was able to do despite having the outer grip, and then you compare that to everything Kotoshoho did do to take complete advantage, and you can see the difference in ability is quite stark. Kotoshoho was obviously mukiryoku here as he picks up the win at 3-0 while Kusano drops his first bout at 2-1.

M13 Shodai was passive at the tachi-ai allowing M12 Asakoryu to come forward and establish the left inside position that sent this bout to hidari-yotsu from the start. As for Shodai, his right hand was constantly positioned at the back of Asakoryu's left armpit (see pic at right), and a wily veteran like Shodai would take this tsuki-otoshi opening every time. If his intent was to win. He never countered, however, and let Asakoryu work him to the side and eventually back for the non-eventful win. I counted at least four times where Shodai had the momentum and positioning to fire off a counter tsuki-otoshi, but he never attempted the move once in giving Asakoryu the win. Both rikishi end the day at 2-1.

M13 Churanoumi looked to latch onto the front of M12 Midorifuji's belt with the left from the tachi-ai, but Midorifuji wriggled free, and so that frontal left became a left grip at the back of Midorifuji's belt. Midorifuji tried to counter with a right scoop throw, but there wasn't enough mustard behind it. From there, the two separated from the clinch, and it was clear that Midorifuji's only move was to score on a surprise slapdown. Churanoumi was too keen to walk into it, and so he ultimately got a paw into Midorifuji's neck and pulled him forward and down near the edge. Merit-wise, this bout wasn't technical at all, but it was real; there was plenty of sumo and counter sumo; and the best guy won, so I'm happy. Churanoumi picks up his first win at 1-2 while Midorifuji falls to 2-1.

M10 Roga bodied M11 Tokihayate a half step back from the tachi-ai setting up the left inside position, and from there Roga seemed to only be interested in retreating. As for Tokihayate, he was up too high to pressure Roga, and he didn't have any mode of attack, but it doesn't matter if your opponent is willing to go backwards, and that's exactly what Roga did step by step. Roga kept faking lunges for a right outer grip, and his hand was right there on the belt, but darn the luck...he could never latch on. I took that still shot at left that shows how Roga could have grabbed a right outer at any time, but he never did.  This was a ho hum bout as Roga did all the work including backing across the straw of his own volition giving Tokihayate the cheap, unearned win.  Roga drops to 2-1 in defeat while Tokihayate buys his first win at 1-2.

The tachi-ai between M10 Atamifuji and M11 Takanosho was lackluster as both dudes stood upright and neither dude came out looking to tsuppari or establish themselves at the belt. After a second of awkwardness that included a quick and useless slap from Takanosho, the bout turned to a lazy migi-yotsu where Takanosho began forcing Atamifuji back. In the process, Atamifuji's right side was completely exposed meaning Takanosho could have grabbed a left outer to sill the dill, but he forced Atamifuji back near the straw and then let his foe go. And not only did he let his foe go, Takanosho pretended as if Atamifuji was executing a counter scoop throw with his right arm (he wasn't), and so Takanosho just set himself up at the edge facing the crowd, and that allowed Atamifuji to eventually push him across.

During the bout, someone was actually brave enough to hold up that drawing of Atamifuji.  At least I think it's supposed to be him since the name is scribbled on there at the bottom.  I'm not sure what's worse these days...sumo itself or the art skills exhibited by the Atamifuji fans.

This bout was definitely arranged beforehand, and I'm not going to bother and speculate the politics behind it because I think straight up, these two dudes would be 50-50 head to head. For whatever reason, they went through the motions here as Atamifuji is gifted his first win with both rikishi ending the day at 1-2.

M8 Ichiyamamoto came with lackluster tsuppari against M9 Chiyoshoma, who reached for a right outer grip and got it but then let it go just as fast resulting in a mild tsuppari duel between the two. As they danced around the ring looking to connect with thrusts, Chiyoshoma was connecting on some nice nodowa, but instead of moving forward and capitalizing on the potential chokeholds, he kept backing up, and he finally put himself at the ring's edge and let Ichiyamamoto come and push him across for the cheap win. Ichiyamamoto is a dull 3-0 while Chiyoshoma falls to 0-3.

Sumo's class clown, M9 Ura, was matched up against M8 Sadanoumi, and Sadanoumi kept his hands out wide as he advanced forward from the tachi-ai. Instead of taking that opening and forcing the bout chest to chest, Ura backed over to his right, and so Sadanoumi followed him still not looking to do any damage against Ura, and at the edge, Ura slid to the side and slapped at Sadanoumi's lower back, and that was the Sadamight's cue to launch himself into the first row. There was very little contact in this bout start to finished, and it was of course fixed in favor of Ura who moves to 3-0 while Sadanoumi falls to 0-3.

M6 Takerufuji was paired against M7 Tobizaru, and Tobizaru ducked his head a bit at the tachi-ai letting Takerufuji come to him, and the M6 walked straight into the firm right inside position for Tobizaru. Tobizaru also had the clear path to a left outer grip as Takerufuji was so upright, but he refrained from grabbing it as the two traded places in the ring. With the dust settled a bit, Takerufuji had a left outer grip, but his inside position on the other side was shallow, and he was way too upright for his own good, and so the two jockeyed back and forth a bit until Tobizaru was able to trip Takerufuji back and down soto-gake style with his right leg tripping at the outside of Takerufuji's left.

This was a really good example of Takerufuji's lack of ring sense and lack of sumo skill in general. His tachi-ai is so ineffective, and he always fights from a high stance, and so he can easily get exposed like this by a clown like Tobizaru who doesn't exactly redefine the phrase "sumo skill" himself.  Tobizaru picks up his first win at 1-2 while Takerufuji is blemished now at 2-1.

In a scripted affair, M6 Gonoyama ducked his head low and sorta charged towards M5 Meisei, but Gonoyama was looking down the entire time. As for Meisei, he barely moved to his left and went through the obligatory slap down motions, but Gonoyama was already headed down of his own volition. Don't know of the politics behind this one and don't care. I just know it was scripted as Meisei picks up his first win at 1-2 while Gonoyama had plenty of room to sell at 2-1.

M4 Hakuohho met M5 Hiradoumi, and Hakuohho left himself extremely vulnerable at the tachi-ai, and so Hiradoumi instinctively got the left arm deep to the inside. With Hakuohho already completely upright, he was easy pickings, but instead of mounting a force-out charge, Hiradoumi backed up instead bringing his right arm up high in front of his face with the elbow bent outward when he could have easily grabbed a frontal belt grip with that right. I knew he was throwing the bout at that point, but Hakuohho didn't have sufficient momentum or positioning to force his compromised opponent back that last step, and so Hiradoumi pretended to go for a maki-kae with the right, and that was just an excuse to back up across the other side of the dohyo where he waited again for a move from Hakuohho, and the latter finally clued in and connected on a little flick with the left hand into Hiradoumi's side, and Hiradoumi dove into the first row for added emphasis. Easy, easy yaocho call here as Hakuohho moves to 2-1 while Hiradoumi is still winless at 0-3.

Before we move on, I poached that picture above from the Hiradoumi - Hakuohho contest, and the caption beneath it reads, "Hakuohho applies pressure in attacking Hiradoumi."  Um, they do know that Hakuohho is the dude in the black mawashi don't they?  The pictures clearly shows Hiradoumi applying the heat so much so that Hakuohho is turned 90 degrees and is completely vulnerable.  This happens quite a bit both in the funny papers and on television where they say one thing when the exact opposite is going on in front of our eyes.

Two furreners met up today in M3 Kinbohzan vs. M4 Tamawashi, and Kinbohzan gave Tamawashi his best shot with a tsuppari tachi-ai, but Tamawashi easily brushed it aside and showed Kinbohzan what the best tsuppari attack on the banzuke looks like. Tamawashi had Kinbohzan dispatched in three seconds with a perfect tsuki attack, and it was all set up early when Tamawashi sideswiped Kinbohzan's arms letting him know that it wasn't gonna be easy.

These two better be careful or people are going to start remembering what real sumo actually looks like. I mean, can you go back and find a single Onosato bout that resembles this? I didn't think so. Even at the age of 40, Tamawashi shows why he is the best rikishi on the banzuke. We all know that Kinbohzan (1-2) could destroy any Japanese rikishi if he wanted, and so to see him thoroughly dismantled like this at the hands of Tamawashi (3-0) was truly telling.

In the sanyaku ranks, Komusubi Ohshoma was matched up against M3 Onokatsu, and the Komusubi weakly moved to his left at the tachi-ai. I mean, if you're going to henka then henka, but this was a sheepish move that could have been on purpose. As for Onokatsu, he took advantage of his self compromised opponent and lightly pushed him back and across for the uneventful win. When a guy sets himself up as Ohshoma did today, a rikishi going full bore would have knocked him two rows deep, so the lack of inaction in this one tells me it was arranged for who knows what? The end result is Onokatsu picking up his first win at 1-2 while Ohshoma falls to 0-3.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage drew M2 Abi today, and Abi henka'd to his left from the get-go using his long arms at the back of WTK's head to drag him down in less than two seconds. It wasn't the slickest henka I've ever seen, but Wakatakakage had no answer as he falls to to the same mark as Abi at 2-1.

Sekiwake Kirishima was paired against M2 Ohho, and Ohho's tsuppari are beefy enough that Kirishima was taking note. The Mongolian stood his ground for a second or two, and then he quickly moved left connecting nicely with a left face slap before getting the left arm inside, which he used to lift Ohho upright. From there, Kirishima got the right inside giving him moro-zashi, and with the dual insides, he forced Ohho back and across in short order. This was a nice start from Ohho, but those initial tsuppari were defensive and so the more technically gifted rikishi easily solved his opponent's attack and dispatched him with ease. Kirishima moves to 3-0 with the nice win while Ohho falls to 0-3.

After a tachi-ai that resembled molasses dripping off a spoon, Kotozakura and Komusubi Takayasu eventually hooked up in hidari-yotsu after trading places in the ring. Takayasu was extremely vulnerable to giving up a right outer grip as is usually the case with him, but Kotozakura was either too inept to take it or he had other intentions. Takayasu realized he was in the inferior position, and so he went for a maki-kae with the right that was so slow even the possums in attendance were jealous, and instead of making Takayasu pay for that maki-kae, Kotozakura stood straight up and just waited for Takayasu to go for a tsuki-otoshi. At least I think that was a tsuki-otoshi. I didn't see a definitive move from Takayasu but next thing ya knew, Kotozakura put both palms to the dirt with Takayasu trying to catch up with a slap.

The was one of those bouts that's best viewed on YouTube with the speed set to 3X just to make it look normal. Sheesh. Kotozakura falls to 1-2 in defeat, and I'm quite sure he took a dive here, but how does one really know when Kotozakura's typical sumo baseline is equal to a pile of dog crap? As for Takayasu, he walks away at 2-1.

The penultimate bout featured Onosato against Hoshoryu Killer, M1 Wakamotoharu. The two traded tsuppari from the tachi-ai with neither using the lower body, and about a second in, Wakamotoharu moved to his left in order to set up a tsuki-otoshi...or so one would think. Instead of going for a surprise slapdown, he just hit the dirt with Onosato trying to keep up with his movement.

You watch the slow motion replays of this one, and you can clearly see that Yoko Ono did nothing to cause Wakamotoharu's fall. It's too bad the Jedi Knights in their brown vests aren't in attendance in Nagoya because they surely would have looked at this win today and observed the lack of contact only to proclaim of Onosato, "The Force is strong in that one."

Strong is not the best word to describe Onosato's sumo, but there he is...already sporting a shiny 3-0 record while Wakamotoharu falls to 1-2.  I added another headline to the bottom of this pic, and it read, "<Day 3 of the Nagoya Basho> Onosato seen here attacking Wakamotoharu won by oshi-taoshi to make it three straight wins."  Of course, Onosato is not attacking Wakamotoharu in the picture.  Rather, it's Wakamotoharu who had Onosato's right arm pointed high in the air and looking vulnerable, but whatever.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Hoshoryu welcomed M1 Aonishiki, and Hoshoryu methodically used nice tsuppari to stand Aonishiki upright setting up the right inside and left outer grip. And just when you thought that the Yokozuna was going to execute a textbook yori-kiri, he abandoned his right inside position altogether, which was a major red flag since the M1 was doing nothing to cause the desperate move. The next red flag was Hoshoryu's standing completely upright compromising his balance, and at that point, he faked a dashi-nage only instead of dragging Aonishiki over to the edge, he just circled in the center point of the ring a few turns before falling backwards and pulling Aonishiki on top of him with that outer grip.

Aonishiki had no idea what was going on in this one, but there he was at the end of the day...the proud new owner of an ill-gotten kin-boshi, and apparently he's the fastest rikishi ever to win, earn, be awarded a kin-boshi.  As I was scanning the headlines afterwards, I saw a quote from former Ozeki Kotokaze where he said, "The Yokozuna was intimidated by Aonishiki's aura."  Wait, what??

Once again, we have a quote in the media that is totally opposite from the truth, but that's what happens when you have to maintain a false narrative.  With the gift, Aonishiki moves to 2-1 while Hoshoryu saddles himself with a 1-2 record in the first three days.

Hoshoryu's antics to this point are likely two-fold:

1. He's running interference for Onosato when the Yokozuna has a basho where his opponents don't let up for him, and
2. He wants to escape the heat of Nagoya and go kyujo as soon as possible

Right back at it tomorrow.

Nagoya Basho Day 2 Comments
As usual, I'm coming into this basho buttsuke-honban in terms of reading any news reports prior to the basho. I did fly to Japan on senshuraku of the Natsu Basho, so I was there for a couple of weeks right after. I don't spend a whole lot of time watching television while in Japan, but when bumping around, you can't help but to see headlines in the newspapers and read the news feed on the bullet trains. The only news of Onosato I noticed was the newly-promoted Yokozuna performing his first ever dohyo-iri at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo...a tradition for all newly-promoted Yokozuna. Beyond that, it didn't feel as if his promotion to Yokozuna was a hot topic outside of the tight-knit sumo community.

I can already tell that the media is trying to make it a topic to kick off this basho, but in order to really excite the fans, you need to have Yokozuna sumo behind the Yokozuna, and it simply doesn't exist with this dude...just like it never existed for Kisenosato or Wakanohana two decades before him. That's beating a dead horse big time, however, so let's focus our attention on the basho at hand.

I had no idea that the Association has some new digs in Nagoya. Starting this year, the basho is now being held in the IG Arena, which looks like a slick new basketball arena that can also be used for a myriad of sporting events.

The old Aichi Prefecture Gymnasium was a dump, and all you'd ever hear about it was how hot it would get inside during the basho. This arena is very nice and air conditioned although it doesn't have that cozy feel to it that the other venues had.

As for a quick recap of Day 1 and the banzuke in general, it looks like Daieisho and Endoh are both out with right leg injuries.



We have three new Makuuchi rikishi in M17 Kotoeiho (Kotoshoho's brother), and M14's Kusano and Fujinokawa. I began talking about Kusano last basho regularly because it was obvious that the Sumo Association was shoving him down our throats. It's no surprise that he finished 13-2 last basho, and it's no surprise that they are going to continue to throw bouts in his favor in order to manufacture sumo's next star. I snapped this pic about two seconds into his Day 1 bout and look how awkward he is (Kusano is in the black mawashi).



If a rikishi ever finds himself in that position during a Makuuchi bout, he has zero chance of winning. Of course, Kusano would come back to "win" that bout against fellow rookie Fujinokawa against all odds.

M16 Mitakeumi and M15 Hidenoumi made their returns to the division, and then we're down to one Ozeki in Kotozakura.

With that, let's get to the Day 2 bouts, and I'll mention any relevant Day 1 topics as we go along.

Day 2 began with M16 Kayo taking on rookie, M17 Kotoeiho. Yesterday, Kayo was destroyed by Mitakeumi, and I believe everyone of Kayo's wins in May were due to yaocho. Today against Kotoeiho, Kayo actually won the tachi-ai after a terrible initial charge from the rookie, but after knocking Kotoeiho back a step, Kayo began retreating to the other side of the dohyo for no reason other than to throw the bout in Kotoeiho's favor, and that he did in a very lackluster start to the day. They ruled it yori-taoshi, but there was no forcing back from the rookie, and nothing he did to caused Kayo to take the knee and then flop into the first row. Both dudes end the day at 1-1 after the circus sumo.

M15 Kotoshoho stepped into the ring next to face M17 Shishi, and Shishi just walked forward at the tachi-ai with his arms doing nothing, and so KSH was able to slip to his right and grab an outer grip that he used to spin Shishi around for a few turns. As the dust settled, Shishi found himself in moro-zashi, but instead of really digging in, he brought his left arm to the outside and played along with Kotoshoho's force out attempt. Shishi lifted a leg and put it forward at the edge completely removing his balance, and that's always a sign of yaocho. Kotoshoho moves to 2-0 while Shishi graciously accepts 1-1.

M16 Mitakeumi and M15 Hidenoumi were involved in a very soft tachi-ai with little force as they hooked up in the grapplin' position straightway. Hidenoumi allowed Mitakeumi to nudge him back to where HNU had his leg braced against the Tawara, and he had the much better position of the two. It was clear that Mitakeumi didn't have the positioning or tools to attack as the bout moved back to the center of the ring. Hidenoumi could have pounced at any moment, but the bout was fixed in Mitakeumi's favor, and so the ending was lame as Hidenoumi finally backed himself towards the edge and waited for Mitakeumi to push him out. As if. Mitakeumi moves to 2-0 while Hidenoumi sells his way to 0-2.

SumoWorld continues to tout M14 Kusano's bouts as one of the bouts of the day, but NHK is just taking direction from the Sumo Association. Today the rookie was paired against M13 Churanoumi. Churanoumi's strategy here was to keep his arms as wide as possible while he slowly backed up to the edge. Kusano didn't really connect on anything, but he finally found himself in moro-zashi at the edge, and of course Hidenoumi just stepped back and across for him. That's as soft of a 2-0 start as I've ever seen from Kusano while Churanoumi falls to 0-2.

M14 Fujinokawa couldn't make a dent in M13 Shodai at the tachi-ai, and that's saying something. The two rikishi hooked up in migi-yotsu, and there was nowhere for the rookie to turn except a mild retreat and movement near the edge to his right, but Shodai stayed snug the entire way and scored the easy yori-kiri in the end. Shodai moves to 2-0 while Fujinokawa is still searching at 0-2.

M12 Midorifuji henka'd to his left at the tachi-ai but didn't fool M11 Takanosho. With Midorifuji wobbling there at the edge and completely vulnerable, Takanosho lightly moved forward pretending to push, and when Midorifuji recovered and quickly slapped while moving to his left, Takanosho dutifully put two palms to the dirt with nothing else touching down. Nice fake bout here as Midorifuji buys his way to 2-0 while Takanosho ends the day at 1-1 only needing to wash his hands afterwards instead of hitting the showers.

M12 Asakoryu and M11 Tokihayate hooked up in hidari-yotsu where neither dude had the right outer grip although their chests were tightly aligned. As they began to grapple, you could see Tokihayate floundering with both hands refusing to grab the belt (even to the inside) or at least position an arm up tight into Asakoryu's armpit. With Tokihayate leaving himself fully exposed, Asakoryu went for a haphazard left inside belt throw, and Tokihayate dutifully hit the dirt. I mean, you at least counter with a right kote-nage don't you? Not if you're throwing the bout, which is what happened here. Asakoryu moves to 1-1 while Tokihayate falls to 0-2.

M9 Ura was paired against M10 Atamifuji, and Atami the Hutt did nothing at the tachi-ai allowing Ura to get a quick right arm inside. When you go chest to chest with Ura and you fail to grab anything like an outer grip over the top, it's a sign you're throwing the bout. As for Ura, he literally had his hands full with Atamifuji, and even though Atamifuji was willing, Ura still had to move all that weight around the dohyo and out, and he attempted a kata-sukashi, but it was so out of sorts that Ura was positioned with his back to the edge and Atamifuji standing square in front of him. Instead of easily forcing Ura back and out, Atamifuji purposefully stepped his right foot across the straw and then both dudes went for a ride down to the IG Arena floor. Ura is merely a prop in sumo as he's gifted 2-0 while Atamifuji takes the cash today in falling to 0-2.

You know how you can tell that sumo is fake?  Yesterday, Hiro Morita said with a straight face before the Ura - Chiyoshoma matchup that "Ura is Chiyoshoma's nemesis."  Uh...okay.

Speaking of M9 Chiyoshoma, he was paired against M10 Roga today, and the Mongolian came forward with two thrusts from the tachi-ai knocking Roga upright, but instead of continuing that momentum, Chiyoshoma just put his hands down and called off the dogs. That allowed Roga to grab a right outer grip, but he wasn't really established with the left inside, and so Chiyoshoma was still in full control. Instead of taking that control by grabbing moro-zashi or using that inside grip for a dashi-nage, he just stood there and waited for Roga's next move. It came in the form of a light outer grip with the right, and Chiyoshoma dutifully rolled over and down conveniently forgetting to counter with his inside left. Roga moves to 2-0 with the gift while Chiyoshoma falls to 0-2.

M7 Tobizaru stood straight upright at the tachi-ai leaving himself fully exposed against M8 Ichiyamamoto. The problem was that Ichiyamamoto made little effort from the tachi-ai himself, so you had two dudes standing completely upright with IYM awkwardly moving forward. Once the two got in sync, Tobizaru just backed across and out with Ichiyamamoto in tow, and this was a nonsensical bout of fake sumo. Ichiyamamoto buys his way to 2-0 while Tobizaru takes the cash in falling to 0-2.

M6 Gonoyama stayed low from the tachi-ai and caught M8 Sadanoumi with some nice shoves to the upper torso standing Sadanoumi upright, and Gonoyama used the lower body well to chase Sadanoumi around the ring and out. It felt like a long time since we had a straightup bout, and while lopsided in Gonoyama's favor, this was a nice piece of oshi-zumo as Gonoyama moves to 2-0 with Sadanoumi falling to 0-2.

In a sloppy bout, M5 Hiradoumi took himself out of the bout from the tachi-ai backing up and standing upright waiting for M6 Takerufuji's attack. Said attack was weak, and so Hiradoumi backed his way around and to the edge keeping his hands high and always moving backwards instead of forward. When it looked as if Takerufuji was coming in for the kill shot, Hiradoumi just jumped across, and Takerufuji made zero contact as Hiradoumi stepped back and across. You watch bouts like this in slow motion, and it's painfully obvious that the bout was fixed in Takerufuji's favor as he moves to a cheap 2-0 while Hiradoumi falls to 0-2.

M4 Tamawashi kept his arms up high against M5 Meisei in an attempt to give Meisei an opening, but Meisei's tachi-ai was weak and he had no momentum. After this shaky start from both guys where Tamawashi was obviously mukiryoku, The Mawashi began dictating the pace by using mild thrusts with a kote-nage grip thrown in for good measure, but after a few seconds of grappling, he just turned his back and started waltzing out of the ring. Meisei caught up and tried to knock Tamawashi out from behind, but because Meisei hadn't forced Tamawashi's movements, he slipped and fell going for that final shove. As for Tamawashi, he assumed that Meisei would keep his feet, and so he lazily stepped his left leg across just before Meisei touched down (they ruled in favor of Meisei), but they went to the tape and overturned it. I'm not sure what they were looking at because Tamawashi clearly stepped out before Meisei fully touched down. Whatever. It was a horrible bout of sumo that saw Tamawashi accidently move to 2-0 while Meisei falls to 0-2.

In the sanyaku ranks, Komusubi Ohshoma welcomed M4 Hakuohho, and the Komusubi lazily kept his hands high and wide from the tachi-ai gifting Hakuohho moro-zashi. Hakuohho's force out attempt was weak, however, and so Ohshoma had to back his way to the edge and just stand there. Hakuohho finally knocked him back and down, and there was such little force coming from the Komusubi that Hakuohho himself stumbled forward on all fours in the corner of the dohyo. That never happens to the winner in a real bout, but it was a great example of the lack of force coming from Hakuohho's opponent...intentionally. It's all shullbit here as Hakuohho moves to a tepid 1-1 while Ohshoma dutifully falls to 0-2.

Up next was Komusubi Takayasu against M3 Kinbohzan, and Kinbohzan easily knocked Takayasu off of the starting lines and back, but you could see that Kinbohzan was only attacking with his arms and forgetting the lower body. With Takayasu in no position to counter, Kinbohzan meekly moved forward looking at his opponent as he waited for a counter move to come, and said move was an extremely weak tsuki-otoshi attempt to the left, and Kinbohzan's reaction was to simply put both palms down with nothing else touching the dirt. Full on yaocho here as both dudes end the day at 1-1, and how can the fans constantly put up with this crap??

Sekiwake Kirishima who displayed the best sumo on Day 1 was matched up against M2 Abi, and we did not get good sumo here.  My gawd!  Kirishima stood straight up from the tachi-ai and moved half a step left, and Abi could have easily read the move, but Abi just pulled his arms in tight and crumpled to the dirt less than a second in. This bout was obviously compromised and all I can do is just shake my head. What is going on with this sport? Kirishima moves to 2-0 with the ugly, ugly win while Abi falls to 1-1.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage and M3 Onokatsu hooked up in hidari-yotsu, and Wakatakakage had his hands full chest to chest with Onokatsu. Still, Onokatsu wasn't looking to take advantage of his size, and he stood there waiting for Wakatakakage to attack. When he couldn't, Onokatsu brought his left arm to the outside, grabbed an outer grip, and used it to swing himself over to the edge with his back against the wall, and now that he had set himself completely up at the edge, he kept his hands up high as if to pull allowing Wakatakakage to nudge him back and across for the cheap win. Onokatsu dictated everything here as Wakatakakage is gifted 2-0 while Onokatsu falls to 0-2.

The most embarrassing bout from Day 1 was Kotozakura's defeat at the hands of Aonishiki. They interviewed Aonishiki afterwards and asked him what it was like to beat an Ozeki, and Aonishiki's response was, "He's an Ozeki??"

Today, the faux-zeki was paired against M2 Ohho in the fake rivalry they are trying to sustain, but Kotozakura's sumo is so bad that it's hardly a rivalry. Ohho easily won the tachi-ai and began nudging Kotozakura back with light tsuppari, and Kotozakura simply had no answer. Good thing for him that Ohho was letting up, and so Ohho abandoned that effective attack and stood there giving Kotozakura the right inside and left outer grip. As the two caught their breath, Ohho let his own left hand just dangle downwards keeping it away from an outer grip that was there for the taking, and from there with Ohho just standing there, it took Kotozakura a full minute to finally catch his breath to where he could "force" a willing Ohho back and across. Such a shameful display of yaocho here as Kotozakura is gifted 1-1 while Ohho falls to 0-2.

In the Yokozuna ranks, Hoshoryu welcomed M1 Wakamotoharu, and the tachi-ai was bad as Wakamotoharu sorta henka'd to his left while Hoshoryu failed to take advantage of it waiting for his foe to square back up, and the two then connected in hidari-yotsu after trading places in the ring. This position is right where the Yokozuna would normally want his foe...nice and upright, but Hoshoryu just stood there waiting for an attack to come from Wakamotoharu. When it didn't come, Hoshoryu went for a maki-kae with the right, but that was just an excuse for him to back his way up against the edge and wait for Wakamotoharu to force him back and across. The yori-taoshi was extremely awkward as there was no counter pressure coming from Hoshoryu as Wakamotoharu leaned into him, and in a normal bout, this would have seen Hoshoryu try an utchari or a counter tsuki-otoshi at the edge. Instead, he just fell straight backwards and Wakamotoharu was trying to fall so as to not land on top of him resulting in a really awkward, fake fall at the edge. Hoshoryu drops one early on purpose, and is this what it's going to take to keep the fans interested? I'm afraid so. As for Wakamotoharu, he's gifted a cheap kin-boshi on his way to a cheap 1-1.

In the day's final bout, Onosato was paired against M1 Aonishiki, and this was a carbon copy of Onosato's Day 1 bout where his foe stood upright and started moving backwards. Onosato did manage to land a paw into Aonishiki's neck near the edge, so there was that, but when Aonishiki suddenly darted to his left in the corner of the dohyo by the salt bucket, Yoko Ono was still facing forward towards the East side as if he was pushing a phantom opponent straight back. In a sense he was as Aonishiki's movements were completely caused by Aonishiki and no one else. Get used to this nonsense for the rest of Onosato's career as he moves to 2-0 while Aonishiki graciously falls to 1-1.

I think I counted a total of three straight up bouts on the day.  Just three.

If this continues, I won't waste my time doing full reports every day, so let's just see how things go.