Toki wins by KO

[Higashimori 0]

First time I've seen that in my admittedly brief sumo-watching career, a rikishi actually gets knocked out in the boxing sense of the phrase. What didn't look like (from the camera angle available anyway) as a particularly fierce harite from Toki was apparently enough to momentarily knock Harunoyama senseless in today's Juyro action (day 10), as he fell to the dohyo like a lump of clay (with his right leg rather awkwardly bent as well). According to the hanamichi interviewer he is speaking ("大丈夫、大丈夫") but it was certainly a bit frightening to look at. Because both rikishi were yotsu-ing, it looked more like an uppercut rather than one of Toki's patented harite (think Takamisakari's bloodied mug here).

[Kintamayama 45,534]

First time I've seen that in my admittedly brief sumo-watching career, a rikishi actually gets knocked out in the boxing sense of the phrase. What didn't look like (from the camera angle available anyway) as a particularly fierce harite from Toki was apparently enough to momentarily knock Harunoyama senseless in today's Juyro action (day 10), as he fell to the dohyo like a lump of clay (with his right leg rather awkwardly bent as well). According to the hanamichi interviewer he is speaking ("大丈夫、大丈夫") but it was certainly a bit frightening to look at. Because both rikishi were yotsu-ing, it looked more like an uppercut rather than one of Toki's patented harite (think Takamisakari's bloodied mug here).

It's happened before. Takanowaka going down and getting subsequently injured comes to mind. Even Osh momentarily losing his place in life as he crashed into Asa's shoulder. He didn't crumble and fall, but he is so tall he has more time to stop a fall than other rikishi (??).(Eh?) (In a state of confusion...)

[Danjinoumi 10]

That was quite a sight, for sure. But I thought it came during more of a stand-off, while Toki was holding off Harunoyama with his left arm. Toki appeared to suddenly slap Haru with his right hand -- not even a full wind-up (a la Kokkai), but it must've caught Haru right on the glass jaw. At first I thought he just caught Haru by surprise, but the amount of time Haru was down, plus the dazed way Haru staggered off the dohyo and up the hanamichi, it appeared Haru's head was in another time zone. I noticed on the replay that Toki did use that same right-hand slap twice before the deciding blow, but neither of those seemed to dent Haru. That's why I was so surprised to see the third one have such an effect. It'll be interesting to check Dale's clip when it gets posted to really focus on what happened -- NHK only showed it twice, the original bout and the replay.