Gaijinohana 0 Posted January 21, 2004 mychar-zeki, you and I must be watching a different basho. From what I've seen, Asashoryu's behavior during the basho has been exemplary. He has demonstrated good sportsmanship to such an extent that even the broadcasters acknowledged it.He's been bad in the past, sure, and no doubt is not an angel, but this basho he's been good, and I'd like to give him credit for that. Hopefully he continues this way. True, Asa has been a lot better this tournament. He looks like the quintessential Yokozuna this time around. Each day of this tournament you watch him prior to a match and he just exudes confidence and then get up there and backs it up with solid powerful Yokozuna sumo. As to his personality, he is that type of athlete that people will always like to watch but love to hate whether or not he deserves it. As for Chiyotaikai being boring: as others have said, it's your opinion and you're entitled to it I like watching him. He's saying "you know how I'm going to come at you, now let's see if you can stop me" -- and most rikishi can't. You're right, most rikishi can't stop him and he can be fun to watch on occasion. But I dont think that he chokes for any mental blocks or anything like that. He gets into the latter stages of a tournament and he runs up against the better rikishi and that's when his problems start. He has overall losing records against, Asa, Kaio, Tochiazuma and Musoyama. I suppose the term 'choker' should be reserved for those rikishi that lose to people ranked well below them when they should win, so in that sense Chiyo isn't deserving of that title. However, he obviously finds it very difficult to beat his peers and has occasionally (only 3 since March of 1999) slipped in a title win. (I used Chiyozakura's great site for the stats) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
QttP 0 Posted January 21, 2004 However, he obviously finds it very difficult to beat his peers and has occasionally (only 3 since March of 1999) slipped in a title win. Which is still more than Tochiazuma and Musoyama and Dejima and Miyabiyama and Takanonami and most ozeki throughout the history and the recent history. Chiyotaikai is a damn fine ozeki. He's been more solid in his rank than anyone with the exception of Kaio perhaps, but Kaio is a totally different story. Kaio is not an ozeki and not a yokozuna. Kaio is KAIO. But I'll leave Kaio to Kaikitsune-zeki and will return to Chiyotaikai. The question whether his difficulty to beat his ozeki/yokozuna rivals comes from inherent weakness in his sumo or a certain mental block is still open, as far as I'm concerned. I don't know the answer. But I see potential in the guy. He may have overall losing records against his peers, but he's had too many too convincing wins against them for all of them to be flukes. Maybe if he gets one good basho (even with a crucial luck factor) where he manages to beat all his main rivals, he'll get a confidence boost and will start winning more against them. Maybe, I don't know. It may not happen, but that's what sports is all about - you never know. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gaijinohana 0 Posted January 21, 2004 Maybe if he gets one good basho (even with a crucial luck factor) where he manages to beat all his main rivals, he'll get a confidence boost and will start winning more against them. Maybe, I don't know. It may not happen, but that's what sports is all about - you never know. Very true. A good debate. We all have our rikishi that we like watching and ones that we like to dislike. Otherwise what a boring forum we would have! Kaio is not an ozeki and not a yokozuna. Kaio is KAIO. So true!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Onnagumo 4 Posted January 21, 2004 We all have our rikishi that we like watching and ones that we like to dislike. Otherwise what a boring forum we would have! B-) (Sign of approval) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
