Basho Talk - Hatsu Basho 2016 +++ Spoiler Alert! +++

[Senkoho 552]

I didn't realize that Toyonoshima has won 5 of his last 6 against the Geek...

I don't believe that any Japanese rikishi will beat Kotoshogiku in this basho. I think everyone realizes what the situation is and none of them wants another Mongolian yusho. Kisenosato would probably really want to win, because he definitely would want this historical yusho for himself. Luckily Giku has already beaten him. Who agrees with me?

Edited January 21, 2016 by Senkoho

[Senkoho 552]

Don't get me wrong, Giku could probably win the yusho even with his opponents giving it their 100% on days 13-15.

Edited January 21, 2016 by Senkoho

[Adil 232]

Asa says:

This is not Chipave game!!! How can these fools lose one after another!!!!!

What's a Chipave game?

[Jakusotsu 5,892]

I wouldn't be in the least surprised if Kotoshogiku loses against Goeido. Disappointed? Sure, but not surprised.

[Doitsuyama 1,178]

Ok, but what do you say if Kotoshogiku indeed loses against the fellow Japanese rikishi? Those statements "I don't believe rikishi X will beat rikishi Y now that Z is on the line" have proven wrong too many times in the recent past, it's hard to take that even serious.

[rhyen 1,827]

That will only happen after Kise or Kakuryu beats Hakuho.

[Katooshu 3,182]

Just noticed that today Ura and Daiki will meet for the third time (currently 1-1).

Looking forward to that!

[Senkoho 552]

Ok, but what do you say if Kotoshogiku indeed loses against the fellow Japanese rikishi? Those statements "I don't believe rikishi X will beat rikishi Y now that Z is on the line" have proven wrong too many times in the recent past, it's hard to take that even serious.

In that case I will say that I was wrong :)

[Dapeng 233]

If Giku still fails to win this basho, he should find a piece of tofu to hit his head to kill himself.

[Dapeng 233]

I didn't realize that Toyonoshima has won 5 of his last 6 against the Geek...

I don't believe that any Japanese rikishi will beat Kotoshogiku in this basho. I think everyone realizes what the situation is and none of them wants another Mongolian yusho. Kisenosato would probably really want to win, because he definitely would want this historical yusho for himself. Luckily Giku has already beaten him. Who agrees with me?

Sure, and Haku will lose again (probably on day 14) to cement Giku's yusho.

[inhashi 2,363]

If Giku still fails to win this basho, he should find a piece of tofu to hit his head to kill himself.

Take these comments elsewhere angry and weeping bird.

[yorikiried by fate 2,010]

Ola, haven't been around much. I'm just back from an expedition to Antarctica, where my team tried to excavate certain objects of interest, which would have proven that the Martians responsible for offing the dinos as a coverup for their Atlantis operation were leaning very assertively on JFK regarding the chemtrails. No luck, though, but hey! Why prove what's common knowledge anyway?

Missed practically all bouts in the last few months. Which makes me ask: The Geek. Jedi stuff, much?

Don't answer that.

Edited January 21, 2016 by yorikiried by fate

[Tenshinhan 1,605]

I don't believe that any Japanese rikishi will beat Kotoshogiku in this basho. I think everyone realizes what the situation is and none of them wants another Mongolian yusho.

I was already wondering where the conspiracy theorists are. Exactly ten years after the last Japanese-born champion, there is a Japanese ozeki who usually struggles to get his kachikoshi and beats all the Mongolian yokozuna in a row, very strange indeed. It looks like even the Mongolians don't want another Mongolian Yusho. (I guess this scenario is made for the Sumotalk forum) But I don't believe in match fixing. It would have been a lot more unsuspicious to give the Yusho to Kisenosato... :-P

I also don't think that a Japanese rikishi will beat Kotoshogiku this basho but less because of the special situation. Toyonoshima, Tochiozan and Goeido are currently just not strong enough to beat him...

[Sumozumo 240]

It's funny that kotoshogiku is so often last in the popularity banzuke, oh how'd that change...

[Senkoho 552]

I don't believe that any Japanese rikishi will beat Kotoshogiku in this basho. I think everyone realizes what the situation is and none of them wants another Mongolian yusho.

I was already wondering where the conspiracy theorists are.

I wouldn't go as far as calling myself a conspiracy theorist. I'm definitely not a member of the 'everything is yaocho' club. I just think that most of the Japanese rikishi, just like most of the Japanese fans would be happy with a Japanese-born yusho winner. I'm not talking about some big convoluted plan involving multiple rikishi. I'm talking about their individual approach to the 10 year drought. I think they would like it to be over. I might be mistaken, of course. Maybe Goeido has some feud with Giku and will really want him to fail? No idea. I hope not :)

[Gurowake 4,031]

It would have been a lot more unsuspicious to give the Yusho to Kisenosato... :-P

But that's the beauty of it! People will say "It can't be fixed, they would have fixed it for the other, more-likely-to-win, guy", not suspecting the double-deception! Contrariwise, maybe they figured there's no way anyone would accept a Kisenosato yusho after all these years of him choking, especially on the anniversary, so it would indeed be more suspicious.

Why didn't they just fix it for Tochiozan a few basho ago when he was 9?-1 after his Yokozuna matches? He was doing just as well as Kotoshogiku was back then.

[Atenzan 1,074]

Meanwhile in the real world, a new, hostile bumpety train is swiftly approaching the Kokugikan, unfazed. Yaocho? A train does not know the meaning of that word. It knows only to gambarize and to belly-bump. Life is simple. Our main train is followed, with increasing conspicuousness, by another train. It is the inconsistent and chaotic Kotoshougiku hype train.

JR have declared complete ignorance as to where on earth either of the trains came from.

[Kurikara 28]

So if Kotoshogiku really pulls this off, is he going to be yokozuna in May or kadoban? :-)

[Tenshinhan 1,605]

I wouldn't go as far as calling myself a conspiracy theorist. I'm definitely not a member of the 'everything is yaocho' club. I just think that most of the Japanese rikishi, just like most of the Japanese fans would be happy with a Japanese-born yusho winner. I'm not talking about some big convoluted plan involving multiple rikishi. I'm talking about their individual approach to the 10 year drought. I think they would like it to be over. I might be mistaken, of course. Maybe Goeido has some feud with Giku and will really want him to fail? No idea. I hope not :)

Ok, I didn't really want to call you a conspiracy theorist. I was just thinking that the current situation with Kotoshogiku is a perfect one for this "everything is yaocho club" because it is so much unexpected to see him at 12-0. And you mentioned the point that the Japanese rikishi don't want to beat Kotoshogiku. I don't know if this is true, maybe for some of them but actually I can't imagine that. Do they have any advantage if Giku takes the Yusho? I believe Tochiozan or Goeido wouldn't really care about this. Maybe because of sumo popularity in Japan? I am not sure about that point either. On the one hand, I often hear how much the Japanese fans want a Japanese Yusho winner or Yokozuna. On the other hand, the popularity of sumo had been rising a lot in the last years although there are three Mongolian Yokozuna and Terunofuji and Ichinojo... so I can't really tell how important it is for the Japanese fans to have a local yusho winner. I could imagine that this topic is more created by the Japanese press than by the fans. The fans were cheering for Ichinojo after his great makuuchi debut and they were excited about Hakuhos Yusho record although these are Mongolian rikishi...

And if Kotoshogiku manages a zensho yusho I will not be surprised that no Japanese rikishi had beaten him. I just can't believe that he beat all the Yokozuna...

[Tenshinhan 1,605]

Why didn't they just fix it for Tochiozan a few basho ago when he was 9-1 after his Yokozuna matches? He was doing just as well as Kotoshogiku was back then.

Yes, these are the questions I would ask the people who believe in match fixing. Why is Tochiozan not an ozeki? Why is Kisenosato not a Yokozuna? Why should they wait for ten long years to create a Japanese Yusho winner? They could have done it so much earlier if necessary...

The only match fixing I can imagine is during single bouts. If two rikishi are friends and one of them needs a win to get Kachikoshi or to stay in the division and the other one doesn't need the win. But maybe this has been discussed often enough and also doesn't really belong to this thread...

[Senkoho 552]

I'm not really talking about bout fixing per se. I'm just talking about the remaining 3 rikishi not really wanting to spoil the party that would be a Japanese yusho. I may be ridiculously wrong, of course!

The first 12 days of this basho created a perfect opportunity for a Japanese yusho to happen (I think that Giku's 12-0 is somewhat better than Tochiozan's 9-1). I don't think there's any "they" who have been waiting 10 years to "give" Japan a yusho.

[Kasutera 258]

Giku just is finally having the right combination of headspace and physical health. It's a wonderful thing that happens in sports. If this were a work and I had the book, I would have saved the Hakuho/Giku match for senshuraku. Then I would have had the show on tape delay so that way a competing program could leak the news that Kotoshogiku wins and derisively comment that "that'll put butts in seats" so that way EVERYONE TURNS THE CHANNEL to see it happen.

[Tenshinhan 1,605]

I'm not really talking about bout fixing per se. I'm just talking about the remaining 3 rikishi not really wanting to spoil the party that would be a Japanese yusho.

But if you think his next three opponents will lose because they don't want to spoil the yusho party, this implies that japanese rikishi (who are not involved in the yusho race) in general want to have a Japanese champion. And this again leads us of course also to match fixing in general... and to the point that there had been similar situations where there was no help from the countrymen for the Japanese yusho contender...

And I just can't imagine that Goeido or Tochiozan would care about a Japanese Yusho rikishi as long as they don't win the yusho themselves. They could be even jealous that Kotoshogiku is the one to reach it. But, of course, I could also be totally wrong...

[Asashosakari 19,093]

If this were a work and I had the book, I would have saved the Hakuho/Giku match for senshuraku. Then I would have had the show on tape delay so that way a competing program could leak the news that Kotoshogiku wins and derisively comment that "that'll put butts in seats" so that way EVERYONE TURNS THE CHANNEL to see it happen.

No question about it, Tony. ;-)

[WAKATAKE 2,648]

Will they skip Kotoshogiku vs. Goeido now? It's nearly handing Kotoshogiku a free win basically; Goeido has absolutely no reason to want to win. While 'giku is already scheduled against the top performing maegashira still in the Yusho race (Toyonoshima), he still might be put against Okinoumi or Takayasu as sanyaku candidates. I would say Kotoyuki, but that's unfortunately not possible.

The way koreyori-sanyaku is set for day 15, you have the following:

Kotoshogiku vs Goeido

Kakuryu vs Kisenosato

Harumafuji vs Hakuho

If Terunofuji were still in then he would have been Giku's opponent but obviously that's not happening. So there pretty much is no avoiding him.