Dwale

Things not looking good for Kisenosato, but we expected that. However, there were many ignorant persons on the livestream saying he is a disgrace and only promoted in the first place because he is Japanese. Utter nonsense! Kisenosato became yokozuna for the same reason he's in there fighting with one arm: because he's a warrior. He has given everything to sumo and even now, staring forced retirement in the face, he refuses to roll over and die. Far from being a disgrace, that's downright admirable. And if he does have to retire, what's the shame in that? They all do, in the end. It would have been easy to say, "Oh, well, I'm never going to be 100% again, guess I'm done." He chose to do the hard thing and fight. I, for one, salute him for it.

Yet another reminder that Takakeisho is stronger than he looks. Young, low center of gravity, aggressive, good lateral movement... He has the potential to be a real force in makuuchi someday. I'm finding it hard not to cheer for the guy. I mean, come on, he looks like a dumpling.

I, too, would enjoy seeing Seagal humiliated in that fashion.

Yeah, I saw. He certainly appeared badly hurt the other day, but appearances can be deceiving.

Goeido is such a wishy-washy, inconsistent mess half the time that it's easy to forget he's actually strong and capable...the other half the time.

If Aoiyama was at full strength this would be a very different story. He's badly hurt and shouldn't be in there at all right now.

Absolutely not. As others have already mentioned, Tochinoshin is A) recovering from injury and B) Kadoban, and likely to have his butt handed to him multiple times next week. He needs every win. Something I don't believe anyone has mentioned, but is worth noting, is that once the opponent has a moro-zashi locked in, it reduces your options dramatically. In this case, Mitakeumi was driving in hard against a vulnerable opponent who simply had no time to formulate a counter-attack.

Ok. Either Kisenosato's muscles have healed up better than we had been led to believe was possible, or he's found some way to compensate. Kaisei was attacking from Kise's left and still got his 207 kg ass heaved over the tawara.

And here come the yaocho police. Really, guys? Is it that hard to believe that a rikishi as experienced and talented as Kisenosato can find ways to win against lower-ranked opponents even if he's rusty and not at 100%? You think Ikioi and Yutakayama passed up kinboshi for ****s and giggles? Come on, get real!

Kisenosato has a knack for reversing things with his back to the bales.

What was Mainoumi's fighting weight during his tenure in makuuchi? I'm not ready to poo-poo Enho just yet.

I'm not sure we can chalk up Yutakayama's success to Kisenosato's status. He came in aggressively and did a good job keeping Kise from getting the left hand in there. To put it another way, Yutakayama came in with a strategy and did all the right things to win, but Kisenosato's superior experience and ring sense decided the match in the end. Still, despite that Yutakayama isn't getting wins, he's been fighting well. Really pleased with this basho thus far.

Mitakeumi looked pretty cool defending against that blitz. I think a lesser wrestler would have been blown into the cheap seats like a cannonball. Takakeisho wasn't screwing around. Amazed and pleased that Kisenosato managed to keep his head and turn that into a win. Too early IMO to say he's back to his old self, but these past two matches make me hopeful. Enho's win was very cool as well.

No, not Kotoyuki! It's not as if he earns most of his losses by forgetting he's not an obese lawn dart or something.

It was really good to see Kisenosato again. I had forgotten how intimidating he is. Whatever his health problems may be, they haven't affected his stare-down.

Whatever other issues I have with him, I have to give him that. His dohyo-iri is above reproach. And here we go. A heated day one, I thought, with several matches taking me off guard. Already impatient for tomorrow to get here.

The Yutakayama v. Mitakeumi bout was intense! Wow, what a wild basho this was. It's going to be a long, long wait 'til Aki...

He's been hurt, so he hasn't been able to train as hard as usual. He probably did trade some muscle for some fat.

Wild to think Mitakeumi is only twenty-five. Really hoping he can stay healthy. I expect we'll hear whispers about the Y word if he does, before long.

ALL the congratulations to MItakeumi for his first (of hopefully many) yusho! As for Ichinojo, well...I think there's a great sekitori in there somewhere, but he has issues that hold him back from realizing his full potential. I have to wonder if he ever will.

I agree. As much as I like him, we need further proof that he can perform ozeki sumo on the regular. I think he definitely will achieve that, but even I am not convinced he's ready yet. (But I am hopeful!)

I've been afraid to say anything about Mitakeumi because I don't want to jinx him. But GO MITAKEUMI!

I don't even want to venture a guess at this point. This basho is completely nuts.

Just read that Tochinoshin's knee is troubling him and that he may go kyujo. What a strange basho this has turned out to be...

Now that Kakuryu is out, I don't see anyone stopping Tochinoshin (barring injury, which at this point would be tragic).