Kyushu 2025 discussion (results)

[RabidJohn]

Wow, well done, Hoshinofuji! He made getting his first kinboshi look easy. Did Onosato accidentally slip the bulldozer into reverse again? 

Edited November 18 by RabidJohn

[dingo]

A very entertaining day!

Asakoryu did a half-henka yesterday, today karma in the guise of Mitakeumi repaid him with a full henka. What goes around comes around...

Fujinokawa got rocketed into the front row seats, wonder how the audience felt about that considering his apparent popularity? He almost had the win too, but Kinbozan was more agile than he expected. Also, loved the nonchalant small dodge by Churanoumi who was sitting nearby waiting for his bout 

I was really hoping to see Tamawashi offer a proper challenge to Aonishiki with his body-raising nodowa, but Aonishiki didn't give Tamawashi a chance to get going. Once he latches on to the belt, which he almost always manages to do, Aonishiki is very difficult to beat.

Onosato returned to his bad habit, went for a pull and gave up an overly easy win to Yoshinofuji. I watched the NHK World video before the basho where Hiro, Murray and John Gunning discussed when Onosato will get a zensho. They all agreed he will get it at some point. He looked like this basho could be it already but as long as he reverts to pulling it will not happen.

Edited November 18 by dingo

[Tigerboy1966]

To beat Ososato you simply have to get him moving backwards.

The only flaw with this strategy is in the word "simply".

[lackmaker]

Are we heading for a dramatic last 3 days? 

[dingo]

32 minutes ago, Tigerboy1966 said:

To beat Ososato you simply have to get him moving backwards.

The only flaw with this strategy is in the word "simply".

I don't think it's that easy since he's quite adept at pulling and tawara dancing too. Maybe that's why he tends to fall back on it too much. The key is not to leave him any space to pull like Yoshinofuji did today and Hakuoho did last basho. 

[Heather82Cs]

2 hours ago, lackmaker said:

Are we heading for a dramatic last 3 days? 

Much to my cardiologist 's dismay. There's 2 outcomes out of 3 that I 'd want but I know better to not cultivate certain hopes.

[Jakusotsu]

Winning against Mitakeumi can be sooo easy.... 

[Akinomaki]

We're heading for a Tokihayate yusho to ruin the year. But Nishikifuji also as always declared he'll aim to win all out. He has fulfilled his duty to ensure the Aomori makuuchi streak and can go on relaxed. 

No late torikumi announcement yet, so these 2 still have easy opponents.

[Tetsuarashi]

dang, this went from an onosato zensho yusho to it's anyone's game in record time... looks like this might again come down to the last day (and maybe some playoffs again)

[RabidJohn]

Yoshinofuji beating Onosato and Aonishiki on consecutive days is seriously impressive. I don't fancy Kotozakura's chances tomorrow...
I know the overall number of rikishi is currently pretty low, but there seems to be no shortage of talented young men finding their way into makunouchi over the last couple of years.

Onosato losing again was a shock. You pull, you lose, but he didn't. Very uncharacteristic to see him lose his footing like that.

Edited November 19 by RabidJohn

[Morty]

Takayasu walked off the dohyo like a man who had just pulled his back out. Moving very gingerly

[Leoben]

19 minutes ago, RabidJohn said:

Yoshinofuji beating Onosato and Aonishiki on consecutive days is seriously impressive. I don't fancy Kotozakura's chances tomorrow...

He looks like the real deal. The most impressive part for me is that he not only beat Onosato and Aonishiki on consecutive days, but did so using two different strategies that perfectly countered each of them.

[Kaninoyama]

2 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

We're heading for a Tokihayate yusho to ruin the year. But Nishikifuji also as always declared he'll aim to win all out. He has fulfilled his duty to ensure the Aomori makuuchi streak and can go on relaxed. 

No late torikumi announcement yet, so these 2 still have easy opponents.

Fortunately for the rest of the contenders, Yoshinofuji also declared that he's fine with winning just two more. 

[Tigerboy1966]

5 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

We're heading for a Tokihayate yusho to ruin the year.

Tokihayate is actually in the top ten for wins in the calendar year which is pretty good going considering he hasn't been higher than M11.

[dingo]

And I thought yesterday was exciting, what about today! 

Did anyone else see Onosato's left foot slipping? That seemed to be the moment when he lost balance. 

Yoshinofuji did exactly what I hoped I'd see Tamawashi doing against Aonishiki. Correct me if I'm wrong but he seems to be the only rikishi to have 3 wins against the Ukrainian. Of course Onosato can catch up to that score this basho. 

[Gospodin]

9 hours ago, Jakusotsu said:

Winning against Mitakeumi can be sooo easy.... 

Ooooh, he is just carefully managing his rank to get himself into the position of a M17 yusho in January. We haven´t had one lately. 

[Jakusotsu]

3 hours ago, Tigerboy1966 said:

Tokihayate is actually in the top ten for wins in the calendar year which is pretty good going considering he hasn't been higher than M11.

Doesn't speak well about those ranked higher.

[dingo]

I think we've known for a while that there are very few rikishi these days who can win consistently. Off the top of my head this year only Onosato, Hoshoryu (notwithstanding his injury) and Aonishiki have been able to put together decent numbers each basho. Everyone else has been too old, injured or simply inconsistent to get lots of wins. So it's no wonder someone like Tokihayate can appear in the calendar year top 10 wins. Same reason why we had lots of maegashira yusho for a while.

Edited November 19 by dingo

[Suwihuto]

Are there an excess of -taoshi kimarite this basho? I suppose the stats will show all in a few days.

[Sumo Spiffy]

4 hours ago, dingo said:

Did anyone else see Onosato's left foot slipping? That seemed to be the moment when he lost balance. 

Yoshinofuji did exactly what I hoped I'd see Tamawashi doing against Aonishiki. Correct me if I'm wrong but he seems to be the only rikishi to have 3 wins against the Ukrainian. Of course Onosato can catch up to that score this basho. 

I thought Onosato slipped because he didn't have a Takanosho to push off of, but watching it again, you're right. Taka didn't move back as far as I thought. It was more the slip that did it.

Aonishiki has done a lot to shore up his core weakness, which has been getting blasted by mega-pushers. Tamawashi knows this and has done his best, but Aonishiki has simply eaten the shots and pushed his way in. So, it says something for Yoshi's attack this time that it was so effective.

[Octofuji]

4 hours ago, dingo said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but he seems to be the only rikishi to have 3 wins against the Ukrainian.

Yes he's the only one with 3 wins. There are a few others on two wins: Wakatakakage, Kinbozan, Daieisho, and Ryuden.

[Octofuji]

Nice to see Gonoyama has a Plan A for when Plan A doesn't work out

[Gurowake]

I'm really impressed by the quickness of Fujinokawa, but he really needs a bit more strength.  He's going to lose a lot of matches the same way (as against Nishikifuji in particular, but other losses as well) unless he can finish the bout in that first push.  I think he should be willing to give up a little bit of that speed in order to be able to actually have the strength to get people out of the ring in those first few seconds.

[Oskanohana]

That was really a D'oh-nosato moment.

4 hours ago, Octofuji said:

Nice to see Gonoyama has a Plan A for when Plan A doesn't work out

He was the one I pinned my hopes on for the Sumo Game World Championship. That was a good bet. He's starting to remind me of Onosho.

[Gurowake]

It's nice to see Kotozakura turn things around to having a winning record already, but his last four matches are probably against the top 4 rikishi right now other than himself, 3 of which are the yusho leaders and the other only one behind, so it's not particularly settled whether he's going to escape Kadoban.