maorencze

There HAVE been people in a plenty of sports that succeeded in this, so for now let's just give the man our support and optimistic thoughts, without any skepticism. If others could do it before, Kise can as well. Will he? That remains to be seen. I for one hope he reaches the top somehow, for one last hurrah, like 10-11 wins or something (though I feel otherwise, but hope always dies last). I'm not that much a Kise fan, but I think majority of members here would agree that Kise at least deserves a full and proper second chance

Well let's see about that. I say 10-5, decent sumo and receiving a "must do better or else" ultimatum for November (where Kise eventually retires because 10-11 wins is the best he can do after his injury). If he keeps up his current strategy for keiko (training with non-Takayasu opponents is a good start and choosing decent ones is even better) then his real condition is going to come out to light sooner rather than later so we'll see.

Good point! I inclined to Taka but kept Ikioi in the game, Rocks solved this for me, thanks!

So we were on the same page actually! That only leaves me to solve my trouble seeding M1-M3

Well, does it? I for one have difficulties placing Kw - Ikioi or Takakeisho? Ikioi is ranked higher but the difference is not that big (M2E-M3W) and Takakeisho has performed better overall and beat Ikioi (along with Ozekis, sekiwake and other opponents ranked higher than him - 5-2 score against M3E and above)

Didn't know that, interesting indeed! First bouts between rikishi always have somehow different feeling

I think Takakeisho has it in the bag tomorrow, with Endo's inability to deal with quality oshi zumo (which bothers me to no end, I was hoping Endo would finally be ready for his breakout yet somehow it seems that as soon as oshi guys stop him from getting a grip it's over)

Dunno, 2 wins out of 10, let's see if he brings 10-11 to the dohyo in Nagoya. I'd say it might be possible, though unlikely. That said, surely in this phase it's more about Kise learning to get around his handicap than overcome it. And still, 30-40% strength loss can still be strong enough to withstand, if not take advantage of.

And the tsuna.

Maybe he'll borrow a page from Kyokutenho's book, finish and then intai

No info on Hokutofuji yet? With that level of concussion, he's done for a couple weeks I'd say.

Many people pondering the same question - how so? It seems quite simple, his father died suddenly in midst of preparations and that's not a thing anyone who has anything close to good relationship with his or her parents can let slide in several short weeks. The pain of loss still too new, coupled with all the recent problems, that's just too much for anyone to handle better than Hak did recently.

Tradition or not, this is a PR bomb that could severely damage public opinion and affect ticket sales. Even traditionalists in any country (Japan included) understand that times they are a changin' and women in society play much different role. Not sayin to just scrap the tradition alltogether, but understanding that current stance does not help their PR and behaving accordingly would be nice, for a change

Outside of his unlucky 2001, I don't see any basis for promotion considering his results. He was good, great even, but too often injured to show enough consistency. In any sports you see examples of guys like that, "could have been the best of the best, if healthy". Also, to take his numbers into consideration - of his 65 ozeki basho Kaio missed 13, thats 20% - a lot of time missing. Take these 13 away and you got 497 wins per 52 ozeki basho, thats 9,56 wins per basho. Comparing that to some of his "should-have-been" (EDIT: and some yokozuna) competition, Baruto had 10,07 wins per (healthy) basho; Chiyotaikai 9,4; Kisenosato 10,71; Kakuryu 9,92; Kotooshu 9,28; Kotomitsuki 9,2; Tochiazuma 9,84 And finally there is the eye test, sadly for me only through ancient videos from the web - this test tells me, that to my experience-limited eyes he was exactly what he was, which is a remarkable ozeki to be remembered as an epitome of this honorable rank for generations to come. But nothing more, and thats not necessarily a bad thing, I'd take a few great ozeki over the same amount of underwhelming yokozuna any day a week.

I'd say Takanohana obviously sent the woman up, but I can't find my sarcasm font anywhere