Does Hakuho intentionally sacrifice himself to help his compatriots?

[luispereira]

If there's any match fixing going on in sumo, it's totally the Brazilian sumotori you need to be wary of. Always handing out wins to their fellow countrymen.

is there a brazilian in sumo? ...u talking about kaisei the japanese?

Joke: Missed.

that i missed it? :-S

[Masumasumasu]

Statements like, "for me the rigging is obvious" are nonsense to me.

[Tenshinhan]

example for obvious rigging :-P

[Kishinoyama]

example for obvious rigging :-P

How can you accuse Takanohana of such a thing!?!? After all, he is 'the greatest Yokozuna ever'. :-P

Edited May 31, 2015 by Kishinoyama

[Andreas21]

Thank you Randomitsuki for this excellent post which matched my sentiment about the topic. Some events have been clearly identified as Yoacho, others are highly suspect, and exchanged rigged bouts for mutual benefit are conceivable once in a while. Taking this as a general perspective on Sumo is ridiculous, however, and simply inconsistent with the actual results.

That being said, I find it very unlikely that Hakuho helped in this particular Ozeki promotion. My arguments are:

- Hakuho lost to Terunufuji in the basho, when a possible promotion was out of the question

- Hakuho lost to Ishinojo, when a good Terunofuji basho was still in the stars

- Hakuho won against Terunufuji, when a promotion was already in the discussion

- Hakuho's late losses wouldn't have helped Terunofuji if somebody else took the Yusho

- Hakuho didn't have any control on the chaotic change of guidelines by the NSK: first they demanded 14-1 which they later dropped, basing Ozeki promotion on two basho results is highly unusual, basing Ozeki promotion on a Yusho is also highly unusual

- Terunofuji had a 24-4 score with Hakuho bouts removed, he had 4-1 against the Ozeki - he doesn't need any help by Hakuho for Ozeki promotion

- there is not much benefit for Terunufuji get to Ozeki now, and not the regular promotion next basho, which would have been very likely if he wasn't promoted now

- there is hardly a benefit for Hakuho in a rushed Terunofuji promotion

- Terunofuji benefited from the same-heya rule. It is unfair but the NSK is fully responsible for that

- Terunofuji benefited from Kakuryo's injury - but any top ranker had the same benefit

- no specific ties between Terunufuji and Hakuho have been reported, it's only based on nationality

- the only Rikishi who benefited from Hakuho was Goeido who was on the way to Kadoban until he won against Hakuho. This bout is potentially suspicious, at least from the result.

On top of that, it is a monstrous idea that Hakuho throws matches. He has by far the largest win-loss ratio of all Yokozuna in near history. If he would throw matches, the ratio of the fairly fought bouts would be crazy.

[Asameshimae]

Let's take the latest basho: First, Hakuho defeated Terunofuji in the course of the basho. Then in the last bout of the last day, he had Ama on the ropes, and was moving in for the final pushout. But wiley Ama, instead of being pushed out, somehow avoided Hakuho's long arms and went in quick and low. He now had Hakuho low and inside. It was an amazing move, which I likely watched 5 times because it was so quick and decisive on Ama's part. That is a difficult position for anyone to recover from - and after that, not surprisingly, Ama won. If that was staged, by either or both of them, it is some of the most convincing I've ever seen.

Hakuho lost it fair and square. Terunofuji won it fair and square.

In this basho, the only argument being made above that I will concede is that, yes, they are all Mongolian.

This argument for this particular basho is ludicrous.

Edited May 31, 2015 by Asameshimae

[WAKATAKE]

Could the Goeido/Hakuho match have been staged? Depends upon your perspective. If it was staged though I don`t think Hakuho would not have bowed when they faced each other at the end of the mat and stayed defiant to not sitting down at the edge of the dohyo when all was said and done. He was clearly expecting a monoii which the shimpan clearly showed was not needed when not one of them raised their hand. In my mind also he was clearly the first one down on the dohyo after the kubinage.

[I am the Yokozuna]

Well, the father of Hakuho was quite happy about the promotion of Harumafuji to yokozuna position, because it would have helped his son take same time off from all the official duties and split them with someone else. Then, an accidental one got promoted to the highest rank as well so more of those responsibilities got shared between more people. Did Hakuho assist the both of them? Very doubtful, hardly plausible and irrelevant - he has extended his career by being able to focus on different things in the training process.

All those simulations are interesting tidbits but hardly enlightening because they are based on the assumption you reach a level of performance and keep on improving it or at least maintaining it. Unfortunately, that is not the reality, especially in sumo - you aim for kachikoshi as an ozeki, anything else does not matter. Majority of games obssessed guys are scientists or have been scientifically trained with a non existent Japanese proficiency and or limited contact with Japanese culture and compensate for their lack of knowledge by trying to present/prove anything with some stats which is funny but once again hardly enlightening.

Has Hakuho helped his counterparts? Who cares? But, from my experience with Mongolian students in Japan - if some trick/loophole/scheme/cheat etc has not been done by a Mongolian, it does not exist. If you want to learn how and when to cheat, ask a Mongolian. (I am saying this with my deepest respect for all people of Mongolia, and I am sorry if I offend someone)

[808morgan]

If he was helping Terunofuji out don`t you think he might have "lost" to him during their match this basho?

Hmm, don't remember the outcome of the individual matches. But maybe he wanted him to get a shot, so to speak, which he wouldn't have had if Hakuho had dominated the way he usually did. And losing to the person he was boosting might raise suspicion. My intuition tells me that Hakuho is telling his countrymen this: "If you prove your mettle well enough, I will step aside momentarily so you can have a bit of the glory too."

So then he threw the match with Kisenosato to make another loss instead of losing to Terunofuji, then threw the match with Ama so it would seal the deal? Crazy talk.

Edited June 1, 2015 by 808morgan

[808morgan]

I don't see Hakuho intentionally throwing all of the matches he lost. I can see him not trying particularly hard in the last bout of the basho knowing that if he loses, his countryman will be promoted to Ozeki. I can see Harumafuji trying particularly hard to help his countryman and heya-mate as well. This kind of thing is exactly why I think it's rubbish that they determined this Ozeki promotion based on how well other rikishi did in the tournament. It's not that Terunofuji doesn't deserve to be Ozeki (he's certainly better than Kotoshogiku and Goeido), but announcing before the day's bouts a new promotion criteria partly influenced by the result of Hakuho's bout definitely caused there to be the potential for it to be rigged. The sudden announcement for Goeido had less potential, as Kotoshogiku was in the Yusho race, and was about something Goeido would accomplish in his individual bout.

I think it's been said before that Hakuho enjoys "playing with his food" to make things more interesting. I don't think he's intentionally losing, but merely not trying hard enough. He's already proven himself to be the most dominant rikishi in the sport's modern history, and he could easily find it too much work and boring for the fans to put in his full effort.

Yeah, if anything his fire is a little low and once he crossed the 33 he probably didn't have as much passion, relaxed a little. Maybe he will bounce back, maybe this will get him fired up.