Tigerboy1966

Every time over the last two years that I've said that Kisenosato is definitely finished and needs to retire he limps and stumbles on to appear on the next banzuke so I'll try another approach. Ahem. Kisenosato will win his next 14 matches, take the yusho, and dominate sumo in 2019. That should do it. Honestly though, I just want to give him a hug and nice cup of tea and say "mate, you don't need to do this anymore".

Takakeisho is physically incapable of doing yotsu-sumo. He would have to drastically alter his body shape (or get arm extensions) to be able to reach the belt.

The mainstream English language Japanese news sources aren't much good: you just get a brief summary of the results focusing on the Y/O. Typical comments include "Yokozuna X easily beat komusubi Y by Z" or "Yokozuna X was forced to the edge by maegashira Y but recovered to win by Z" Not much more than you could get from looking at the matches and results page on the official site and considerably less fun than watching Kintamayama's videos. I would say however that John Gunning's column in the Japan Times is always worth reading.

In ascending divisional order and remembering that this is a fantasy prediction... Hattorizakura gets a win and retires, says "I have achieved everything I want to in sumo" Terunofuji goes 7-0 and the comeback begins. The rise of Tsukahara continues in makushita. Tomokaze goes 15-0 to win juryo again and clinch promotion. Tochinoshin wins the big cup in a three way play-off against Onosho and Takakeisho. Yago goes 10-5 and gets the FS prize. Kisenosato retires.

... and misrepresents, insults, bullies, persecutes, doxes and deplatforms anyone who disagrees with zem.

Cushion throwing was certainly overused at Aki, where we saw a zabuton fly when Takayasu beat Kakuryu. I wouldn't want to see it become the equivalent of golf's "get in the hole!".

Is there a chance that they might just shuffle him over to the west?

And where are those 8 wins from 11 bouts going to come from? He's got 3 ozeki, 2 sekiwake and a komusubi to face as well as Tamawashi tomorrow.

Err... it might not be Kisenosato's decision to make. Technically he can defer retirement, but he may just get the tap on the shoulder.

I think his lack of attention may have had something to do with him being head-butted very hard to the jaw. That kind of thing tends to affect your concentration.

I forgot about the Kasugano & Sakaigawa prohibited matchups. Would this bring Takanoiwa (who looks a bit dodgy injury-wise) or even Kagayaki up into the list of sacrificial victims?

With Kisenosato and Takayasu both being from Taganoura it also means that Asanoyama at M5W will probably have to fight one or both of them.

So for this basho Ichinojo is Mongolia's top-ranked wrestler. That could have interesting consequences. Remember what Ichinojo did to Kisenosato in September?

Well, it's official now. He's out: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20181108_16/

My error: the Fukuoka complex has 3 arenas and I was looking at the capacity of the biggest one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukuoka_Convention_Center