Hatsu 2024 discussion (results)

[Shikona 139]

Ura has the best puss in sumo. I could see him thinking, "Got this one! Just square the feet for one more push forward--" and then he hit the ground.

[Yamanashi 3,693]

2 hours ago, dingo said:

Tamawashi with a yorikiri win? I had to double check to believe it.

Although he has an unbelievable 52% oshi- percentage in his wins, he's been open to using the belt in his last few basho.  The Forum commented on his famous 4 yorikiri victories in July of last year (10% of his career total).

[Yamanashi 3,693]

2 hours ago, Koorifuu said:

Ura does lose spectacularly.

I'm thinking about his loss yesterday to Hokutofuji: he could have just fallen on his chest, but instead he did a flip.  Always entertaining!

[Seiyashi 4,068]

Terunofuji's win here has shades of Hakuhō's sumo in Nagoya 2021. Scrappy as hell and not at all trademark. The end is likely nigh, although I don't know that it'll be this basho necessarily. 

Very nice escape by Hōshōryū. 

The chap sitting behind the gyoji has had 3 rikishi land on him by a casual count. Is that a record? 

 

[RabidJohn 1,650]

5 hours ago, dingo said:

Tamawashi with a yorikiri win? I had to double check to believe it. Great sumo by the veteran.

That slipped my mind earlier, maybe because he had 4 such wins in one basho last year. 
It's 'new tricks' like this that could keep him going past 40.
He's aiming for Moti to dub him 'wily' if you ask me.

[Benevolance 2,474]

Oh, ho ho! The sanyaku are wearing their big boy mawashi this basho. 

[Tigerboy1966 1,376]

6 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

Terunofuji's win here has shades of Hakuhō's sumo in Nagoya 2021. Scrappy as hell and not at all trademark. The end is likely nigh, although I don't know that it'll be this basho necessarily.  

In a spooky echo of Nagoya 21, Terunofuji beats Kirishima to take the yusho and rides off into the sunset. Kirishima takes up the rope. And the wheel turns.

[Benihana 1,901]

52 minutes ago, Tigerboy1966 said:

In a spooky echo of Nagoya 21, Terunofuji beats Kirishima to take the yusho and rides off into the sunset. Kirishima takes up the rope. And the wheel turns.

How about this: 13-2 ketteisen Hoshoryu and Kirishima. Hoshoryu takes the cup, Kirishima takes the rope, Terunofuji (kyujo after day 6) takes the intai. Hoshoryu keeps his momentum and joins Kirishima after Haru.

And again, enjoyable sumo. I couldn't hype myself up for the basho, everything was so *meh* the previous weeks. Now i can't wait for lunch break or Feierabend to watch Kinta's video.

[Rocks 1,805]

Takakeisho is out from Day 4

[dingo 1,134]

9 hours ago, Benihana said:

How about this: 13-2 ketteisen Hoshoryu and Kirishima. Hoshoryu takes the cup, Kirishima takes the rope, Terunofuji (kyujo after day 6) takes the intai. Hoshoryu keeps his momentum and joins Kirishima after Haru.

Sounds like a decent plan, but where are we gonna get new ozeki? I'm rooting for Kotonowaka but there should be at least a few. 

[Hankegami 412]

Good Day 4 to everyone. Very short comment, I don't have much time right now.

Enormous upset from Midorifuji, who made Yokozuna hopeful Kirishima to bite the dust. While one loss is just one loss, Kirby is now 3-1 and is one step behind 4-0 Hoshoryu and Kotonowaka, both of them in good shape this basho. Also, Terunofuji is 3-1 after having taken out trash Gonoyama (don't get me wrong, I like the guy, but Teru totally manhandled him). Since everyone is looking for the next Yokozuna (Teru cannot show up every six months endlessly) I didn't really like this slump from Kirishima. But that's it. By the way, perhaps we shouldn't write Teru out yet. He surely has back issues, but his strategy is clearly to trash out as many people as possible without endangering his back. It could work, especially for the first 10 days before he has to face the san'yaku.

Edited January 17 by Hankegami

[dingo 1,134]

Seems like Onosato learned something from the loss to Onosho yesterday. Today he was much more aggressive, got a better tachiai and was unstoppable moving forward. Maybe ex-Kisenosato gave him a small reminder yesterday. Ideal sumo.

Oho trying to emulate Onosato today. He has a similar body so should be able to do similar sumo, though he only seems to have discovered it recently. Good win. 

Asanoyama seemed to be in a hurry somewhere as he didn't have time to cozily hang out with Hokutofuji on the dohyo. Hokutofuji must be devastated not to have his daily dohyo meditation time. 

Tobizaru is the true spiritual successor of Aminishiki's wilyness, perhaps along with Ura. Excellent gameplan today, deceiving Kinbozan into relinquishing a strong double handed grip before he even realised what's happening. Kinbozan simply gave up by the end. 

Shodai surprised me by putting up good resistance against Daieisho, though it was ultimately for nothing. It almost looked like in the end he had a chance to grab Daieisho's arm and do a surprise pulldown. Instead he just landed on his ass. Oh well, maybe next time. 

Big win for Midorifuji! He managed to take control of the bout and stay on top until the excellent katasukashi. Uncharacteristic from Kirishima, but Midorifuji was simply better today. 

Gounoyama definitely doesn't have enough experience against Terunofuji, letting the yokozuna grab his arm easily. Great reflexes by Terunofuji as well. 

[RabidJohn 1,650]

37 minutes ago, dingo said:

Uncharacteristic from Kirishima, but Midorifuji was simply better today.

I don't know. Their h2h is now 4-3, so the little guy is actually a regular thorn in the side for our tsunatori ozeki.
Kirishima could've done without losing, for sure, but I'm old enough to remember Akebono getting the rope despite the awkward presence of Mainoumi on the dohyo.

Hoshoryu... A big part of me thinks an ozeki shouldn't be getting himself into those situations, but another part is astounded at how he can bring his strength to play from very awkward, seemingly losing positions. Two days on the trot.

I like Gonoyama, but Terunofuji made him look like bowling ball today.

That said, my 'Make your opponent look useless' award goes to Tobizaru for what he did to Kinbozan (whom I also like).
The Flying Monkey is way better than many of us gave him credit for when he got the shikona, but he's become one of my all time favourite joi rikishi.

[Seiyashi 4,068]

6 minutes ago, RabidJohn said:

I don't know. Their h2h is now 4-3, so the little guy is actually a regular thorn in the side for our tsunatori ozeki.
Kirishima could've done without losing, for sure, but I'm old enough to remember Akebono getting the rope despite the awkward presence of Mainoumi on the dohyo.

Hoshoryu... A big part of me thinks an ozeki shouldn't be getting himself into those situations, but another part is astounded at how he can bring his strength to play from very awkward, seemingly losing positions. Two days on the trot.

I like Gonoyama, but Terunofuji made him look like bowling ball today.

That said, my 'Make your opponent look useless' award goes to Tobizaru for what he did to Kinbozan (whom I also like).
The Flying Monkey is way better than many of us gave him credit for when he got the shikona, but he's become one of my all time favourite joi rikishi.

Couldn't have put any of this better myself. Especially in relation to Hōshōryū.

[dingo 1,134]

1 hour ago, RabidJohn said:

I don't know. Their h2h is now 4-3, so the little guy is actually a regular thorn in the side for our tsunatori ozeki.
Kirishima could've done without losing, for sure, but I'm old enough to remember Akebono getting the rope despite the awkward presence of Mainoumi on the dohyo.

Interestingly enough Midorifuji is a thorn for both Mongolian ozeki. Can we call him the Mongolian specialist? 

Edit: if either Kirishima, Hoshoryuu or both make it to yokozuna then Midorifuji can look forward to plenty of kinboshi. 

 

Edited January 17 by dingo

[hakutorizakura 586]

Midorifuji is the real deal in small man sumo in the last few years. He doesn't rely on funny tricks (which he does sometimes, but that's okay) and just fight toe to toe.

[Leoben 120]

2 hours ago, dingo said:

Interestingly enough Midorifuji is a thorn for both Mongolian ozeki. Can we call him the Mongolian specialist? 

Edit: if either Kirishima, Hoshoryuu or both make it to yokozuna then Midorifuji can look forward to plenty of kinboshi. 

He earned himself a big upset today, but I think his head to head with Hoshoryu is interesting because there was a clear shift in the trend about a year ago. At the beginning of 2023 it was 5-1 in favor of Midorifuji but now it's 6-6, with Hoshoryu winning the last 5 encounters: https://sumodb.sumogames.de/Rikishi_opp.aspx?r=12352&r2=12451

I bet Kirishima will figure him out too and the matchup will become more one-sided over time, but he'll always be someone they have to be extra wary of.

Edited January 17 by Leoben

[Tochinofuji 370]

3 hours ago, RabidJohn said:

I don't know. Their h2h is now 4-3, so the little guy is actually a regular thorn in the side for our tsunatori ozeki.
Kirishima could've done without losing, for sure, but I'm old enough to remember Akebono getting the rope despite the awkward presence of Mainoumi on the dohyo.

Hoshoryu... A big part of me thinks an ozeki shouldn't be getting himself into those situations, but another part is astounded at how he can bring his strength to play from very awkward, seemingly losing positions. Two days on the trot.

I like Gonoyama, but Terunofuji made him look like bowling ball today.

That said, my 'Make your opponent look useless' award goes to Tobizaru for what he did to Kinbozan (whom I also like).
The Flying Monkey is way better than many of us gave him credit for when he got the shikona, but he's become one of my all time favourite joi rikishi.

I have to agree on Hoshoryu, though it also seems to me like because he knows he can pull things out of the fire, he more readily let's it drop into the fire in the first place. I wonder if as he ages a bit, and mileage on the body start to add up, whether we'll start to see him take a more measured and calculating approach. 

For me, I have to say that Terunofuji's textbook arm drag to dominant throw takes the cake for me. That was a thing of beauty. 

[Yamanashi 3,693]

9 hours ago, dingo said:

Shodai surprised me by putting up good resistance against Daieisho, though it was ultimately for nothing. It almost looked like in the end he had a chance to grab Daieisho's arm and do a surprise pulldown. Instead he just landed on his ass. Oh well, maybe next time. 

I think Shodai remembers all the reversals at the tawara he used during his glory days in 2020-2021 (his only winning technique that stands out statistically is sukuinage).  He acts like he can still get shoved to the edge and "pull one out of his mawashi" against opponents that are now wise to that trick.

[Sumo Spiffy 523]

Kotonowaka's form of Gono-bowling was still better than Teru's. (Both were really good, though.)

[Kaninoyama 1,664]

11 hours ago, RabidJohn said:

Hoshoryu... A big part of me thinks an ozeki shouldn't be getting himself into those situations, but another part is astounded at how he can bring his strength to play from very awkward, seemingly losing positions. Two days on the trot.

Reminds me of another guy who was pretty good at getting out of sticky situations at the edge of the dohyo. Retired not too long ago. Fellow countryman. GOAT...

[Yamanashi 3,693]

Kotoeko loses to go 0-4 in Juryo; his 9th loss in a row on the basho.  Beaten today by fellow-ex-Makuuchi Chiyoshoma.  You could have seen them face off as Maegashira 16 times previously since 2018; now you have to get there early to catch their match.

[Katooshu 3,107]

Mainoumi only beat Akebono once........it just gets replayed over and over. In fact, if highlights are anything to go by, Mainoumi never lost a match 

Edited January 18 by Katooshu

[Yamanashi 3,693]

31 minutes ago, Katooshu said:

Mainoumi only beat Akebono once........it just gets replayed over and over. In fact, if highlights are anything to go by, Mainoumi never lost a match 

If he had hung on a few more years, he could have lost to Takanoyama.

[Yamanashi 3,693]

I watched the first day 4 bout in Juryo: Ms1e Kayo vs J14w Tochimusashi.  Stunningly unimpressive prep for the bout.  Both guys looked and moved like they'd just finished a Medieval feast: hardly able to get their legs off the ground, shambling around the dohyo; I swear Tochimusashi picked at his crotch a dozen times.  I hope no one at home was telling their reluctant friends, "Well, let's see some sekitori fight; you know, the ritual surrounding the match can be just as exciting as the bout itself!"