Morty

Welcome back . Good to see you again.

I really hope Takakeisho decides to intai. It's painful to watch him now. He has destroyed his body to get to the very top of a sport that most people his height struggle to dominate in, and with that bad neck he risks permanent paralysis given his style of leading with his head. He looks so broken physically that I can't ever see him getting the Ozeki rank back. He should be proud of what he has achieved. He has had three Yokozuna runs (most rikishi have none) and in my opinion he should have got the rope on the second one. He was an Ozeki for five years, and in the aftermath of Hakuho he maintained the rank with dignity until Terunofuji returned. While other Ozekis came and went and didn't set the world on fire, he could be relied upon to be a steady hand. His style meant he was probably never going to zensho, but he could be relied upon for double digit wins when fit. While he was injury prone, when he was fit he always performed at the Ozeki level, and it is really injury that has brought him low rather than lack of skill. I think he has done a tremendous job, has achieved way more than should have been expected for a rikishi his height, and I hope he goes out with the same dignity he has shown for the rest of his career, and calls it a day before he ruins his body anymore.

If they marketed it right it could be a bonanza. Do it like it's a race to be the next Yokozuna, who will it be to achieve one of the hardest feats in world sport?!?!? Kotozakura, Onosato, Takerefuji, Hoshoryu, or somebody else? (I don't think the other Ozeki are really in the mix). In pro wrestling they always say the money is in the chase. Of course, it's the Kyokai so they would be absolutely guaranteed to stuff that campaign up, and the YDC wouldn't help by making regular statements about how nobody is worthy etc.

I feel like we're watching the last days of Takakeisho. His body looks (and probably is) completely broken and his style and size requires him to be fully fit to be successful. He has managed to wring every little possible bit out of that body to have an extremely successful career, but it looks like it is finally failing him. I hope he rallies and gets to 8 wins, but it looks dubious to me. If he drops below Ozeki I hope he goes intai so that he can stop punishing himself, and so he may be able to walk and live relatively pain free into old age.

The blast from the past was from Font Day wasn't it? And what was that font, I liked the "k"s in it? And whatever happened to Font Day....?

While I'm not discounting the possibilities of PEDs in sumo, in this case it's just as likely to be a high dose of pain killers. Athletes use them all the time to be able to play through minor injuries. And if you watch the things pro-wrestlers are able to do to themselves while carrying major injuries, it's usually because of large amounts of pain pills. You pay for it later, but for a short duration sport like sumo, one quick injection before the bout could get you through it

Onosato showed today that not only is he big, not only is he really strong, not only is he skillful, but he's also really, really fast. That side step was lightning quick. Dancer's feet.

Now that was a better day of sumo. Good stuff. Kudos to Kirishima and Kotozakura for flying the Ozeki flag

Futabayama, Taiho, Chiyonofuji, Hakuho

A couple of basho ago Atamifuji went 10-1 at M15, and then 11-2 at M8 by smashing the guys at the bottom end of the banzuke for the first week, and ended up at 11-4 for both basho, once he ran up against the big boys. I predict something similar for Onosato and Takerufuji this basho, and that one of the 6-2 Ozeki (or Abi) will take either a 13-2, or 12-3 yusho. I hope I'm wrong, because it would be cool for one of them to win it, but that's a more likely outcome.

This. The idea that being a champion in a sport will instantly make you a champion as a coach has been proven wrong over and over and over, in nearly every sport. While there are notable exceptions, the usual result is that the champion crashes and burns. Coaching is an entirely different skill set and it needs to be learned. While Hakuho appeared to be good at teaching his deshi to be good on the dohyo, he was clearly an abject failure at the other parts of coaching, ie, looking after your charges' welfare. I'm not surprised this didn't go well

I've been thinking about Kisenosato and choking. I seem to remember him falling on his sword a lot, but how much of it was just that he had to beat the GOAT in order to triumph and that was unlikley about 75% of the time? Regardless, Kotonowaka doesn't seem to have the habit of choking and he doesn't have the GOAT in his way - he does have Terunofuji but if he's good enough he'll work out how to get past that, or Terunofuji will retire.

Likewise, I wasn't glad, but I didn't think he was ready yet and that was proven by the outcome. Getting to Yokozuna is literally one of the hardest things to achieve in world sport, and it's pretty rare that rikishi make it on their first attempt - even Hakuho didn't get the rope on his first try.

Tremendous last day, as good as day 14. Terunofuji was imperious, twice.

Same, I will miss him. One of my favourite rikishi of the last ten years.