Kaioshoryu

Perhaps, but I think the quality this basho is worse than last basho. Still, the drama is good though.

Probably will be a 11-4 with a playoff. Says a lot about the current state of sumo doesn't it? Even though it's quite enjoyable with Makuuchi being totally unpredictable, in terms of the quality of the actual wrestling it doesn't look that good.

Hokuseiho??

Pretty lousy effort from Terunofuji there.

I love when these necro threads are pulled up, seeing the names of the posters in them... Mark Buckton, now there's a blast from the past!

Oops, not good. I'm by no means a Hakuho fan, but meant no disrespect to the greatest rikishi of all time by spelling his name wrong. I hope a moderator can correct my mistake.

I don't know how credible the source is, but there is strong rumblings that Hakuho's retirement has been set in motion. https://twitter.com/SumoFollower/status/1442197463100579845

Boring tournament in my opinion. I have no problems with the yokozuna dominating and taking the yusho, that is how it's supposed to be, but there was an overall lack of exciting sumo. Highlight was the ipponzeoi by Hoshoryu. Lowlight: very bad effort from the ozeki pair. They are supposed to contend for the yusho, but they weren't close, they weren't even in the same solar system. Takakeisho needs to get his body and mind back together.

Good to have a basho to follow, but I have to say that Day 1 was pretty unimpressive. Not a lot of good matches, especially bad work by Takakeisho, Shodai and Takayasu.

If Hakuho went to watch judo without informing the NSK, that’s just incredibly short-sighted. I am sure Hak knew there would be a reaction, but decided to do it anyway. This could be really bad for him, but we’ll see. As someone else mentioned: this feels a lot like a certain football match…

Will they also be testing for steriods I wonder…

Haven't seen him yet.

You are right about Asanoyama and Takakeisho of course, but I thought it was telling that the rikishi that stepped up and collected more wins in their absence were the mongolians. In fact all mongolians in makuuchi finished with a KK, Chiyoshoma finished 8-7.

Interesting to see the domination of the mongolian rikishi this basho. Of the 9 rikishi that finished with 9 or more wins in makuuchi, there are 3 japanese and 6 mongolian rikishi. Ichinojo, Hoshoryu and Kiribayama has really upped their game lately, and are likely to rise to ozeki-level in a couple of years. Additionally: Mitoryu took the juryo yusho, and Hokuseiho (technically japanese, but actually mongolian) took the makushita yusho. The retirement of Harumafuji and Kakuryu might have led someone to believe that the mongolian dominance would diminish, but with Terunofuji making a comeback, and several other mongolians trending positive, it seems that it won't. Perhaps I'm reading to much into the results of one basho, but I'm not seeing enough improvement in their japanese counterparts to believe that Mongolia won't dominate makuuchi.

I think they are all great. Guess I'm easy to please.