dada78641

I got to say, I'm so glad Hakuho is back. It's such a treat to watch him. Despite all the injuries he could seriously go on to wrestle at the top level for a long, long time if he wanted to. At the same time, it's a boss move to be able to retire while still getting nakabi kachikoshi, instead of doing so out of necessity because you're losing every bout.

He really looks like a yokozuna. What I like about his sumo is that it pretty much looks like if he stabilizes at all, he wins. If you're going to beat Terunofuji, it has to be from a strong tachiai into an attack. He has that in common with Hakuho.

What an incredibly unique bout between Hakuho and Tobizaru. I guess Tobizaru was proved right about his approach when Hakuho finally got a hold of his belt and then decided he doesn't want Tobizaru in the ring anymore. As Tobizaru you'd better come up with something tactically clever against the man if you want to have a chance. I was actually thinking earlier that this is why Hokutofuji has a hard time against wrestlers like Terunofuji and Hakuho (he lost to both of them) because he has a very "honest" style of sumo. He just wants to come at you and outclass you. And that's hard against these guys who are bigger and stronger and have enough experience to not give an opening away for free.

Takagenji-Enho was one of those weird violent bouts that make you wonder whether everything that happened was legal, and whether the rules are overly lax if so. Apparently it was, since the judges did not say anything, but some of those slaps looked pretty close to punches to me, and it wouldn't be surprising if Enho got knocked out cold because of it even if they were open hand. That said, they might not have been able to see it closely enough. Unfortunately the regular stream I watch no longer carries NHK (I'm guessing because the Olympics are coming up which makes the rights situation more complicated) so I don't know if they provided an update on his condition later on. I'm reminded of the infamous Kinjo-Maeta bout (Kinjo now named Chiyodaigo) where he just smacked him in the head repeatedly and knocked him out.

I wouldn't be looking forward to all the technical glitches he's going to inevitably run into as a result. Either from bureaucracy or from computer systems.

Fortunately Terunofuji taught us all that having knees is overrated.

I think it's a good thing, because the reordering for Western audiences ends up being pretty confusing. Maybe that's just because when you speak Japanese and English you have to deal with both versions though. But I always thought it was more trouble than it's worth. Just learn that some countries put the family name first.

I mean, "we" (meaning most people here) are expecting he will retire soon, and he's really just looking to close it out in as nice a fashion as possible. Poor choice of words on my part.

Since Hakuho is planning to compete, I'm kinda assuming this is his last basho ever. Of course, we've been expecting him to retire for a long time and he still hasn't done it, but his knee is probably in an absolutely terrible state. But you know, despite his body being held together by duct tape, I'd still expect him to be seriously dangerous and fight for the yusho, perhaps with a style of sumo that's a little easier on him.

Correct, when I said 4 years ago I meant to the day

I was just reminded this morning of how I went to get some banzuke 4 years ago, long before coronavirus. Back when we had four whole yokozuna! This is at the Ryogoku Kokugikan. Last one is a pic at my local sauna.

Shame, I always liked seeing him on the dohyo, in part because he was in upper maegashira a lot and even made it to sekiwake once, so I was always expecting him to have his "moment" where he suddenly surprises everyone by breaking through. He even had a single jun-yusho (Kyu 2015) and very nearly got into the yusho playoff the basho before that. I got into sumo in around 2014, and it's weird seeing so many makuuchi mainstays from that era exiting the sport now.

I wonder when people voted on this? Since Asanoyama's scandal was pretty recent, maybe some of his votes are from before then?

Yeah, I think you're right and this is something that might start annoying me as well if I listened to it a lot. It's hard to tread the line in such a way that your commentary is accessible to newcomers but not overly verbose to more experienced viewers. In some cases like "gyoji-referee" (and probably also for the most common kimarite) you can probably just omit the trick because it should be pretty obvious what it is anyway just by paying attention.

I like the fact that the English commentators use English and Japanese terms together, like "He gets the oshidashi pushout victory." It's a funny way to be accessible and yet teach viewers what the proper terminology is. I very rarely listen to them though, since I watch sumo on a Japanese TV stream, so I only ever hear them when watching Youtube videos.

I'm wondering about how hard it will be for him to maintain his skills and sumo sense during this long absence he's faced with. Sure he'll keep physically training, but he's going to miss out on a lot of practice actually competing with the best in the sport. And with COVID-19 I guess there's not much (or any?) inter-stable keiko going on.

"Grafter" is such a weird word to use, even though I understand he's going for the UK meaning. But that's OK, I like that Hiro's use of language has a certain flair for the dramatic, both in articles and when he's commentating. He also has the exact same writing quirk I do, which is to use two adjectives where one will do, e.g.: "The wrestlers were happy and appreciative to compete in front of fans once again."

Getting an early start on the Ridiculous Predictions topic?

My bad. Skimmed through the topic too quickly when I read up.

By the way, I hope we're gonna get more news on this soon now that the tournament is over. Maybe they'll wait another day or so while we're still on that post-tournament high, but then I'm hoping things are gonna start moving...

By the way, I'm really sad there wasn't enough time in the broadcast to get another shot of Terunofuji with his tea cup. A few pictures for posterity:

Really goes to show that most people don't really think too much about how much data gets collected about us by our own devices. Even with location history turned off, unless you activate flight mode, your phone is constantly making network connections that could potentially be used to track you (albeit with considerably more difficulty—this is how some Capitol Hill rioters were tracked for example). But yeah, if he has his location history turned on it's pretty easy. What a thing to throw away your career for. This reminds me of a friend of mine who's very privacy minded and always turns off his phone's location history. His girlfriend suspected he might be cheating on her and turned it back on so she could follow his whereabouts. When he found out she did, the lack of faith was so shocking to him that it was enough to cause a breakup.

Well... yes, that's exactly what I said in my post lol My point was just that some people already seemed to be counting out Endo and focusing on just Takakeisho and Terunofuji. I was just pointing out Terunofuji could even not be on the dohyo for that final bout despite how good he's looking for the yusho, sorry if it was written confusingly. Anyway, really beautiful final bout between Terunofuji and Takakeisho. His quick first win must've really sent Terunofuji's mind into overdrive about how he'd approach the tachi-ai in the decider. He ended up being a bit more conservative and it paid off. He actually even backed off from Takakeisho when he was right at the edge of the dohyo, just to make absolutely sure he wouldn't end up getting a sudden reversal loss. I think it's absolutely a deserved win for Terunofuji given the quality of his sumo. One final wallpaper...

Frankly, it was the first time anyone was able to fight Terunofuji evenly in this whole tournament. Even in his hansoku loss he was clearly the better wrestler. Not so much this time, though, Endo earned it. Also, people are talking about how tough a challenge it is for Takakeisho to beat Terunofuji twice...but remember that if he beats him once, and Endo wins his match against Shodai, we've actually got a 3-way playoff. It's entirely possible we could see Endo-Takakeisho fighting for the yusho.

That Endo vs Terunofuji match was fantastic, and a deserved win for Endo. They debated it for quite a long time and, frankly, I would've been alright with a torinaoshi too considering how close it was, but in the end when both wrestlers are engaged in a double throw like that the winner is decided by the centimeters of who touches down first. On a side note, there was a rare shot of the kimarite display during the broadcast: