Basho Talk Haru 2018 (SPOILERS)

[dada78641 884]

4 hours ago, Yukiarashi said:

Chiyootori 2-3 at Ms49!!!

You know, I was wondering what happened to him. That's absolutely dreadful.

[rhyen 1,799]

16 minutes ago, dada78641 said:

You know, I was wondering what happened to him. That's absolutely dreadful.

taking a big risk returning to the ring after major surgery, I am guessing he doesn't want to fall past Makushita division so that he will have a shorter climb back up the banzuke.

[Amamaniac 2,078]

4 hours ago, Morty said:

That Yoshikaze-Chiyonokuni bout featured two of the best headbutts you will ever see. Yosh started it with his typical "leading with your head" tachiai, and then Chiyonokuni returned the favour with a clear and deliberate nut right in the middle of Yosh's face. No wonder he looked as bad as he did at the end of the bout.

I'd quite like Yosh to retire. He has been leading with his head for so long he must have massive spots on his brain. Much more of that and six months after he retires he will be drooling in the corner and drinking soup through a straw. Chinyonokuni will end up the same way if he continues following the Yoshikaze textbook. Having a very hard head and using it as a weapon only works for so long.

Thanks for pointing out the headbutt(s).  Both wrestlers certainly dropped their heads and charged like mountain goats at the tachi-ai.  I assume there is no concussion protocol in sumo?

What I liked about the bout was that Yoshikaze got ahold of the end of Chiyonokuni's mawashi, and used it to yank the latter down.  They ruled it uwatedashinage.  Technically, the move started as a shitate (inside grip) and Chiyonokuni brought his arm up over Yoshikaze's head as he was going down.  That is the first time I've ever seen a wrestler swing his opponent down by the loose end of his mawashi.  It reminded me of the hammer throw in track and field.  IMHO they should create a special kimarite for that!  #notgonnahappen

Edited March 19, 2018 by Amamaniac

[Asojima 2,870]

49 minutes ago, Amamaniac said:

What I liked about the bout was that Yoshikaze got ahold of the end of Chiyonokuni's mawashi, and used it to yank the latter down. 

Yoshikaze once used the same technique to beat Yamamotoyama.

[ryafuji 806]

6 hours ago, Yukiarashi said:

Chiyootori 2-3 at Ms49!!!

As his older brother  and former tsukebito defeats an ozeki. That's got to hurt.

[Chankomafuji 51]

Shaky fight for Kakuryu  and he knows this better than anyone. Others too had shaky fights so far and they lost, he hasn't yet. I have the impression that many believe he will lose to every san'yaku opponent he is to face while forgetting that they, the san'yaku rikishi, will have to face each other too, starting today with Tochinoshin-Goeido ... Counting him out with 9-0 result is  laughable. 

Mitakeumi is not in top shape, he too had an easy fight with Ichinojo and Goeido is questionable. These are 3 opponents Kakuryu will certainly have faith he can defeat.  If Takayasu and Tochinoshin lose once more things are getting very, very difficult for them. And Kakuryu has a 21-1 lead against Tochinoshin for a reason. For me Kakuryu is still the main contender for the yusho. And for his diligence I hope he emerges victorious. 

Edited March 19, 2018 by Chankomafuji

[Asashosakari 18,670]

8 hours ago, Yatagarasu said:

The torinaoshi in the Ikioi-Kotoyuki was completely unnecessary.  I thought the replay was pretty clear showing Kotoyuki's hand coming down first.  Ah well, at least Ikioi carried the day the second time.  

Personally, I thought it was a good decision. Both guys executed a technique causing the other one to go flying and arguably become shinitai, and I don't particularly like seeing a bout decided by who became shinitai a split-second later (that was probably Kotoyuki), or by which dead body happened to hit the ground a split-second later (that was Ikioi). I'd like to see more torinaoshi in such cases where neither rikishi has achieved actual superiority and the finish was very close. (These happen with some frequency with the lower divisions, but sometimes I get the feeling that the reasoning is just "ah, what the hell, that was a mess of an ending anyway, might as well let them try again and not waste too much time discussing this", which is an attitude the shimpan obviously can't bring to the broadcasted-on-TV divisions.)

Edited March 19, 2018 by Asashosakari

[Jakusotsu 5,754]

2 minutes ago, Asashosakari said:

These happen with some frequency with the lower divisions, but sometimes I get the feeling that the reasoning is just "ah, what the hell, that was a mess of an ending anyway, might as well let them try again and not waste too much time discussing this".

I'd like to see tori-naoshi more often among Sekitori as well. Why trying to split a hair when there's enough left to pull?

[Rocks 1,805]

3 hours ago, Chankomafuji said:

Mitakeumi is not in top shape, he too had an easy fight with Ichinojo and Goeido is questionable. These are 3 opponents Kakuryu will certainly have faith he can defeat.  If Takayasu and Tochinoshin lose once more things are getting very, very difficult for them. And Kakuryu has a 21-1 lead against Tochinoshin for a reason. For me Kakuryu is still the main contender for the yusho. And for his diligence I hope he emerges victorious. 

At 9-0 I would agree he's the favorite, right now. As for how he'll do against the sanyaku?

Tochinoshin has a thing about Yokozuna, messes with his head. But that was before he had a Yusho. He doesn't look as strong this basho as last but he looks way more confident and relaxed. I would consider that an even match. Either could win.

Mitakeumi has started his mid basho slide. He usually recovers. If he does He can beat Kakuryu. He did last basho and Kakuryu looked stronger then.

ichinojo had a slow start last basho. Not this one. If Ichinojo shows up ready for the match Kakuryu loses.

Takyasu will beat Kakuryu this basho unless he goes into a terrible slide and the match means nothing.

Goeido can beat Kakuru if he doesn't mess up.

My prediction? Kakuryu loses to 3 of them. But that may still get him in a playoff.

[Asashosakari 18,670]

4 hours ago, Chankomafuji said:

Mitakeumi is not in top shape (...)

It feels like that's being said in every tournament now. Maybe he's just not as good (yet) as people think he ought to be... Seems to suffer a bit of the allrounder's curse - there are a lot of things he does well, but nothing about his sumo is really exceptional, and if his opponents manage to bring their A game in their own specialties, then he's arguably the underdog against many of them. That makes his success more dependent on the daily condition of his opponents than on his own, and that's probably not a good thing for somebody aiming for the ozeki rank.

On a completely different note (but at least the shikona starts out the same) - for as strong-like-bull as Mitoryu obviously is, I'm frequently amazed how "light" his opponents can make him look if they get a good grip on him, Takanoiwa today being the latest example. He's just very easily moved and can't seem to anchor all his weight to the ground properly. That's something he seriously needs to overcome if he wants to eventually progress past the maegashira/juryo elevator zone, IMHO, because right now his sumo doesn't look like it'll support anything better than that.

[Kuroyama 715]

2 hours ago, Asashosakari said:

These happen with some frequency with the lower divisions, but sometimes I get the feeling that the reasoning is just "ah, what the hell, that was a mess of an ending anyway, might as well let them try again and not waste too much time discussing this", which is an attitude the shimpan obviously can't bring to the broadcasted-on-TV divisions.

I wonder... Do they have the same video replay available for the lower divisions as they do for sekitori bouts? I had thought they were dependent on NHK for the camera angles.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Kuroyama

[Jakusotsu 5,754]

Weird kesho-mawashi by Terunofuji. Looks like totally black satin without any decoration at all.

[WAKATAKE 2,624]

Toyonoshima now joins Chiyonofuji as having faced both a father and son pair in sumo, as he defeated his opponent Kotokamatani today, son of current stable master and former Kotonowaka. Unlike Chiyonofuji, Toyonoshima holds the distinction of having defeating the father-son duo that he has faced. The match today took place almost 13 years after Toyonoshima defeated Kotonowaka at Kyushu of 2005. Toyonoshima is now kachikoshi and will be moving back up the makushita ranks for Natsu.

https://www.nikkansports.com/battle/sumo/news/201803200000423.html

[rhyen 1,799]

check out the chiyomaru bowling ball.

 

[orandashoho 720]

Now only Kakuryu has to lose his bout for the yusho race to be wide open again.

[Akinomaki 39,568]

5 hours ago, Jakusotsu said:

Weird kesho-mawashi by Terunofuji. Looks like totally black satin without any decoration at all.

Looks just black on TV, but has his name on it - and Terunofuji is especially fond of that kesho-mawashi

On 7/13/2017 at 16:20, Akinomaki said:

The dark blue one has 照ノ富士 - Terunofuji written on it - on TV it really looks like a totally boring black one。It's from the Asia goodwill koenkai - no info about the background.

[Tsubame 355]

I would be heavily disappointed by Goeido's performance today, if my expectations for him weren't already on the lower end...

[Godaiko 26]

9 minutes ago, Tsubame said:

I would be heavily disappointed by Goeido's performance today, if my expectations for him weren't already on the lower end...

My whole family was pretty annoyed* by that bout; my son, in that way five year olds sometimes do, picked up on mom and dad's mood and announced "I think that Goeido guy is my enemy."

*Our mood matched the look on Tochinoshin's face. 

[XiaoTan 93]

Why? It was perfectly executed - Tochinoshin never knew what didn’t hit him.

[YoungSumo 93]

A henka in such a big time bout is robbing the fans in my opinion. He's allowed to use it but shouldn't be surprising people aren't happy with it.

[Taikoubana 143]

One would expect Goeido to have a more respectable demeanor and fighting style in his hometown. And one would be setting their expectations far too high.

[Tsubame 355]

It was - indeed. One of the best henka performances of the last years in makuuchi. No question about this. And it is a legal technique, even for a yokozuna.

But on the other hand it was a match between an ozeki (from who you expect to contest somehow for the yusho) and the winner of the last basho in the rank of a sekiwake, with both still in the possible yusho race. The decision to do pull a henka in such a bout lacks the spirit of a fighter and questions his hinkaku for higher merits (ok, at least for me).

[Godaiko 26]

9 minutes ago, YoungSumo said:

A henka in such a big time bout is robbing the fans in my opinion. He's allowed to use it but shouldn't be surprising people aren't happy with it.

That's it for me; Tochinoshin is one of my favorite rikishi and I was looking forward to a great match. 

[ryafuji 806]

14 hours ago, Kuroyama said:

I wonder... Do they have the same video replay available for the lower divisions as they do for sekitori bouts? I had thought they were dependent on NHK for the camera angles.

No they don't - it's not available for the lower divisions. But even if they did, I wonder if they would use it that much. I don't know that it negates Asashosakari's point that they are more likely to tell them to have another go than spend several minutes analyzing bouts between low rankers.

Edited March 20, 2018 by ryafuji

[ryafuji 806]

1 hour ago, XiaoTan said:

Why? It was perfectly executed - Tochinoshin never knew what didn’t hit him.

He was nowhere near to putting both fists to the ground. The head shimpan should have called it back.