rzombie1988

While I do think they should try to give a basho to other cities in Japan, there's a lot of benefits to keeping the basho in Fukuoka. It spears awareness. It reaches local fans there and it's important for getting future recruits from Fukuoka.

I did some similar research here about bigger guys doing well in sumo a while back since there seemed to be a large correlation, though I got very different and mostly negative responses: Hokuseiho is getting a lot of talk because he's tall and young. As I've said before, if I ran a stable, I'd probably not even bother with guys under 6 foot. It's not that they can't be great wrestlers, but people like Ura and Ishiura have to be so much more technically proficient and work so much harder than big guys like Gagamaru, Aoiyama and Kaisei did to get the similar results. I legitimately think you can get to Makuuchi mostly on size alone. Height is advantageous in sumo because: - You can pack on more weight and muscle on without affecting performance and at the end of the day, the heavier a wrestler is, the harder they are to move. Smaller wrestlers can only pack so much weight on before performance is affected. - The taller wrestlers have a major reach advantage (which should be talked about more in sumo) and someone like Hokuseiho could push someone like Ura without Ura being able to touch him - Taller wrestlers have a longer distance from their head to their mawashi than shorter wrestlers do and if Ura and Hokuseiho were both bent over against each other, I doubt Ura could even touch Hoku's mawashi without going to the side. - Hokuseiho can also push down on smaller wrestlers and reach their mawashi's by going down the back, which they can't do to him. I don't know how much the pushing down helps but certainly being able to grab their mawashi's from above is a nice advantage.

I think one other thing that should be brought up in this thread is that some rikishi may not have any interest in acquiring kabu and staying in sumo.

The field has been really weak for the last couple of tournaments and some of the results here were just downright embarrassing. If you cannot get to 12 wins under these conditions, what are you doing in sanyaku? Hokuseiho and crew can't come soon enough. Asanoyama really screwed up by getting suspended. He likely would be Yokozuna and would have a couple of titles now if he hadn't gotten in trouble. I bet Hakuho's probably regretting retiring too as he would have easily won this one if he had stuck around. I knew Tamawashi was winning this when he was in the lead at Day 9. There was just no way a proven vet like him was letting this golden ticket go.

I haven't been watching too much lately. In any kind of combat sports like this, there is usually a change of the guard every generation and we are currently in that. I didn't get to see the last change of the guard, but it takes a while to get people established. I think Mitakeumi may be able to become a Yokozuna, though I really question if he could while Hakuho was still around. There's a real murderer's row of guys coming in from Makushita soon. Makuuchi better be prepared. Shishi, Hokuseiho and Kinbozan are all 190+ cm and they are coming. I really feel bad for Takayasu. Quite possibly one of the last chances he realistically had to get a title and he loses it twice.

I would really like a button to see all of the stables and see which wrestlers are in them.

I didn't watch much of the basho as I figured Terunofuji would have an easy time. Glad to see he won. I hope Mitakeumi doesn't get promoted yet. His record isn't impressive enough. 8-7 and 9-6 are hardly records to be excited about, especially with this less than stellar group.

$20 million on a stable is just dumb. You don't even technically need a ring to train sumo.

I think it's the right call. He hasn't completed a full year of tournaments since 2015-2016. It's really not fair to the other wrestlers who in some cases have had to do 200 more matches where they could get injured while he got the day off. I think him staying around also made it harder for the next generation to get the spotlight put on them. Yes, he can take a break and compete for a title, but how many other wrestlers could do the same with months to recover? He will go down as one of the best yokozuna ever, but he was also one of the luckiest. He was very lucky to have weak competition as there was no one up to par from Asa's retirement to Harumafuji's promotion, which helped him rack up a lot of victories. He then got really lucky again in 2017 as Harumafuji got kicked out, Kisenosato never recovered from his injury, Terunofuji got demoted due to his injuries and Kakuryu was just not a consistent threat. Don't agree with the whole Japanese citizenship thing, but I won't be going into that any further here.

Glad Terunofuji got the nod. It should have happened already though. Curious to see if Hakuho can make the next two basho in the a row.

Glad he got promoted. Should have been in 2015 and should have been in March/May of this year. Him being able to take off tournaments when he isn't 100% is really going to help him out.

I don't believe that post was in good faith. That person and I have been having issues dating back to 2014 when Kakuryu became Yokozuna. Some people just don't get along for various reasons. We haven't interacted in a long time and I'd prefer to keep it that way unless my hand is forced. I think it was obvious that I don't think anyone over 190cm can just walk in and get to Juryo, but taller wrestlers have a better chance of doing so. If I were recruiting for sumo, I would pretty much only search for taller recruits due to their physical advantages. That's why every other combat sport has weight divisions.

I could be intentionally rude back to you but I can do better. Bigger wrestlers have longer reaches, can have more weight behind them without their performance declining and can generate more force with their increased weights. All of these things are advantageous to sumo. Does it absolutely mean anyone who is over 190 can walk right in and get to Juryo? No, but the list below shows some evidence to my theory of taller wrestlers generally having higher chances of success in sumo. Since I can't figure out how to do a search for the tallest wrestlers ever on the sumodb to see how they did, I will have to go another route. http://xn--psso2y7wo.jp/rikishiPro/senreki/6431 - Here's a list of the tallest sumo wrestlers ever. I will only count the people with actual photos as sumo was different in the 1800's with some people just being gifted high spots and much data is missing on the older wrestlers. Of the 60 wrestlers listed, 22 had a photo. All 22 made it to Makushita and 17(soon to be 18) of the 22 made it to Juryo: Fudoiwa - Sekiwake Kotooshu - Ozeki Dewagatake - Sekiwake Hokuseiho - Probably at the top of the 3rd division next basho and likely Juryo in September. Kotowaka Chikao - Juryo Futahaguro - Yokozuna Baruto - Ozeki Yoshiazuma - Makuuchi Daihisho - Makuuchi Oazuma - 3rd division Takanonami - Ozeki Kaishoryu - 3rd division, Ms6w was his highest rank Ikioi - Sekiwake Tochinowaka - Makuuchi Okano - 3rd division Gokenzan - Juryo Hokutoo - 3rd division - Still active, but yes, probably not making it any further Chiyonowaka - Juryo Mitoizumi - Sekiwake Tachihikari - Makuuchi Wakanoho - Makuuchi Roho - Komosubi I look forward to your reply.

The double dohyo's really aren't too big of a deal. I really don't think doing sumo on grass or something is really going to have too much affect on your performance. If Kise wants to do well, he should just recruit a bunch of big guys. You can get to Juryo no problem if you are 190cm or more with enough weight.

Glad the basho's over. It was a complete waste of time as far as I'm concerned since Terunofuji wasn't getting the nod here no matter what happened, even though he's obviously deserving of it. Takakeisho should have already been promoted using the Kakuryu rule of a win + a 2nd place result, though he has the lesser case of the two. Hopefully both guys do well next tournament and we can finally stop playing games. And on Asanoyama, it's the lying that got him. Had he just fessed up to breaking the rule, he would have been a lot better off. I don't think we will be talking about him again until 2023.