rzombie1988

Longevity is what it is. You can't really train for someone falling on you at a weird angle or landing hard on a fall. Accidents just happen. Even in like basketball or football or other sports, I've never valued longevity awards as much as others due to the lack of control. As I said, if I give you another one, does that really make him that much of a better Ozeki? I don't think so. He's still going to be a middle to lower end of the pack Ozeki.

What is Ozeki to you? To me, Ozeki are the people almost good enough to be Yokozuna, but just can't get there. Whether it be due to injuries, inconsistency or just other people being better. I think Ozeki should be able to hit 10 wins 4-5 times out of 6 tournaments, especially since they get two chances to maintain rank if they go makekoshi. I think they should be able to win a title once in a while and should atleast have a bunch of Jun-Yusho's to their name. I don't think Ozeki's should be like Kaio, who late in his career barely hit 8 wins for years. That doesn't really bring honor or respect to the rank. It makes it almost look like cheating.

He had one Jun-Yusho and one Yusho in 32 tournaments as an Ozeki. Add another one on the list if you want. Does that really make him that much more impressive? He only reached 33 wins in 3 tournaments once as an Ozeki. I don't find that very impressive either. If we looked through Ozekis who never made Yokozuna - He was not better than Kaio, Chiyotaikai, Terunofuji, Takanonami, Kirishima, Hokutenyu, Konishiki or Tochiazuma. He was better than Kotooshu, Dejima, Miyabiyama, Asashio and Musoyama, who no one would say were great Ozeki. Baruto was better, but if you want to discount him due to his record, fine. Kotomitsuki was more competitive, just not as an Ozeki, strangely. Goeido, who I also wasn't impressed with had 2 Jun-Yusho's and one Yusho in 33 tournaments as an Ozeki.

He will get to Maegashira on size alone unless he's somehow worse than Gagamaru.

He was a limited guy who really got a lot further than he should have. His Ozeki run was pretty bad with him never really being in the mix to win. I don't think he was ever the best Ozeki at any given time. Even Goeido was arguably better than him and Goeido was never really that impressive either.

About 4 years too late. He has been an embarrassment for years that seemingly only got by on size, just like Aoiyama. You watch him and you would think he is wrestling on a sheet of ice with how much trouble he has not falling over. If people like him and Aoiyama put in even half the effort as their contemporaries, they would have dominated the sport.

Hakuho hasn't successfully completed two bashos in a row since May/July 2017. Three years ago. Kakuryu has only done it twice in the same time span. I'm not saying these guys aren't skilled or still aren't good, because they are. But it does not seem fair to me that 99% of rikishi have to wrestle every tournament or risk getting demoted while Kakuryu and Hakuho can be almost part-time wrestlers at this point and not face any consequences. What good is a yokozuna who is only around some of the time?

Hakuho is officially out for the November 2020 Basho.

Kakuryu out again. That'll be only one full basho completed this year and only 4 completed bashos in 2 years. Hakuho is still undecided with 3 days to go which doesn't sound good. If he doesn't make it, that'll be only one full basho completed this year.

Kakuryu and Hakuho out again this basho. Between the two of them, they have completed 3 total bashos in the last year.

>are competing at the peak of their sport?! Half the time, when they actually complete tournaments. >And who wins? A Maegashira 17 Can you tell me more about this Maegashira 17 winner? Has he ever won titles before or has he ever been a higher rank?

> EXPECTED to retire if they can no longer compete at the peak of the sport, or uphold the dignity of the rank There it is. How can you say they are competing at the peak of the sport when they can only do it half the time? And what is dignified about missing so many matches? > clearly they can both compete, given the number of recent Y/J I think a lot of wrestlers would have better records if they only had to wrestle as much as Hakuho and Kakuryu do. And I think both of those two would have a lot worse records if they had to wrestle as much as everyone else does.

Well that's not true at all. Corporations and governments frequently cave in to public pressure. One idea is that Yokozuna(and Ozeki for that matter) should be forced to compete in a minimum amount of matches in a 1-2 year time period to keep their rank. Ask Harumafuji and Asashoryu about that one.

>I want all of the Yokozuna to show up on day one every tournament and compete for all 15 days. Is that realistic when they get above the age of 30? If they can't handle the same schedule as everyone else, maybe they shouldn't be wrestling? You know that life sometimes is not fair. There's different kinds of unfairness. Man-made and non-man made. Kisenosato getting injured right after his promotion to Yokozuna. That's a non-man made unfairness and there's nothing that can be done about it. Hakuho and other Yokozuna getting to miss tons of matches and tournaments while others can't, is a man-made unfairness. And fortunately, it could be fixed in record time.

No? Both Hakuho and Asashoryu were great, but they were the only real competition each wrestler had for large portions of their careers. I'm sure both would have done well during the golden periods too, but they would have had fewer titles with better competition. Kaio, Kotooshu and Chiyotaikai are not Akebono and Takanohana. I'd be interested to see how Hakuho/Kakuryu would hold up right now if he were forced to take on a regular schedule like everyone else is. All those extra matches and falls do a number on your body and I think it's unfair that Hakuho/Kakuryu can avoid them without consequence, while people like Terunofuji get sent to Sandanme for taking the same time off. I honestly think both would probably be retired now if they couldn't take breaks.

Sumo history changes if various people aren't around. Asashoryu was helped by having bad competition just as Hakuho was helped by having bad competition from 2010-2013. Without Hakuho, there's no doubt people like Harumafuji, Kisenosato, Kakuryu and Terunofuji would have had a few more titles. And without him now, we'd probably have people like Shodai, Mitaekumi and Terunofuji around the Yokozuna level.

If everyone could do it, it wouldn't be a problem. But only Yokozuna can without punishment. Meanwhile, people like Terunofuji get to go through Sandanme again.

I disagree. Tons of wrestlers would no doubt be able to perform better if they were only going to compete in a few bashos a year. These guys get beat up out there with the dohyo falls and with the training. All of that takes a toll on how well you can perform.

There's little doubt in my mind that Terunofuji would already be Yokozuna if he could have taken the extended breaks without punishment that Hakuho can., for instance, and I'm sure many wrestlers feel the same way about their promotional dreams.

I get that everyone gets injured sometimes, but unless Hakuho and Kakuryu get pressured by the JSA, I could see this going on for another 2 years. And I don't want to see that, and I don't want to see the next Yokozuna to start copying them and take it easy too. There's really been no one else in history who is missing like these guys are regularly now. These two have missed or failed to complete even more tournaments than Kashiwado. I also think this stuff hurts sumo. It makes the basho's look less competitive, taking away from victories and it makes it harder for new stars to emerge when these guys are still in the spotlight.

Saw that he retired, what happened? Seemed like he went through a whole lot of trouble and time to just retire like that.

The pot calling the kettle black here.

Exactly. 8-7 at J1 would have been enough in any other basho. It's been a LONG time since I can recall no one from M14 on going makekoshi.

We'll see what happens, smartypants. And this is how you spell "loses".

Kyokutaisei's bout to get screwed on his lone shot to get to Makuuchi. He needs to win tomorrow and he needs the judges demoting Terunofuji. Takayasu could also use a big win tomorrow. If he were to win the next tournament, he'd have to be in consideration for promotion.