UFC/Boxing/Combat Sports

[Shyster]

The worst sumo wrestler of all time has retired. In the last six years of sumo, 23-year-old Shonanzakura (who also wrestled under the name Hattorizakura) compiled a record of 3-238, which never saw him rise above the lowest Jonokuchi division (wrestlers have been known to be promoted out of Jonokuchi even with losing records). His last win was in January 2019, and when he retired he was on a streak of 104 consecutive losses.

It's never been clear what Shonanzakura's deal was. Shonanzakura had no prior sumo experience before joining professional sumo, but his training stable (Shikihide stable) has a policy of accepting anyone who wants to try sumo, so they didn't refuse him when he wanted to sign up. I've seen video of some of his matches, and he seemed utterly disinterested in winning. His matches mostly seemed to consist of him standing up so that his opponent could easily walk him out of the ring backwards. It wasn't like he was injured or physically weak or incapable; he supposedly worked pretty hard in training and did lots of chores around his stable. He just didn't seem to care about ever winning. Best of luck with his future endeavors.

[Shyster]

And now the best sumo wrestler of all time has decided to retire.

[count2infinity]

Quite the match last night. #1 penn state beat #2 Iowa in Iowa.



I don’t typically watch wrestling except for big matches. Would be fun to go one here some day.

[count2infinity]

Congrats to PSU wrestling for clinching the NCAA championship before the individual championships even start this evening (they have 5 in the finals).

They’ve now won 9 of the last 11 championships. Insane.

[willeyeam]

9/11. Real nice

[willeyeam]

Cael is a gigantic ass hat but he certainly knows how to get his guys wrestling their best come this time of year

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

Congrats to PSU wrestling for clinching the NCAA championship before the individual championships even start this evening (they have 5 in the finals).

They’ve now won 9 of the last 11 championships. Insane.

All 5 won their matchups. Amazing.

[count2infinity]

5th team in history to win 5 of the 10. Second time PSU has done it (2017).

It’s one of those things where you know it’ll come to an end at some point. They can’t dominate like this forever, but I’ll enjoy the ride while they’re still doing their thing. Cael is the GOAT. I don’t think there’s anyone that combined his dominance on the mat with his dominance as a coach and building a program like this.

[Dickie Dunn]

Dan Gable is probably the only other person in the conversation.

[willeyeam]

John Smith too. Gable is the GOAT. Cael will surpass him eventually

[count2infinity]

Yeah… Gable’s coaching career was great. Cael is on the same trajectory, just hasn’t had the longevity of Gable yet. As far as their individual wrestling careers, Cael>Gable.

[Pavel Bure]

@Shyster this was pretty cool to watch. Any context to the final match shown? Also, damn these guys get concussed to hell and back and get no help?

[Shyster]

The final match was Tokushōryū (who lost) versus Tochinoshin (who won). Tochinoshin won by a lift-out (Tsuridashi). I don't remember that specific match, but it looks like Tochinoshin hurt himself in the process. Tochinoshin has a history of bad knees and serious knee injuries, so that might have been what happened there.

And yeah, it was the case that they'd get concussed to hell and back and get no help. There are situations where the Sumo Association is completely ass-backwards as all f**k, and the way injuries are responded to and treated is absolutely one of those situations. Only after lower-division wrestler Hibikiryu was paralyzed in the ring last year and later died in the hospital from his injury did the Sumo Association even start having doctors stationed by the ring.

If you want to see a compilation of mostly very good sumo, here's one that is a compilation of every match between former Yokozunas Asashoryu and Hakuho throughout their careers.

[Ad@m]

JFC

[Pavel Bure]

Chimaev dodging Nate Diaz. Should still be a good card.

[Cagsjr724]

Chimaev dodging Nate Diaz. Should still be a good card.

Diaz-Ferguson should be a good fight.

[willeyeam]

I'm not sure how I feel about it but Bo Nickal is gonna be the next UFC superstar

[Shyster]

Random trivia: In addition to monetary prizes, the top-division winner of each sumo tournament wins a bunch of food prizes, some of which are sponsored by the local food producers in each region where the tournament takes place and some of which are national. The winner of a tournament can expect to take home:

For every tournament:

A side of prime beef
A total of 5 tons of fruits, vegetables, chicken meat, and eggs from various sponsors
10kg of pickled plums (umeboshi)
The winner's weight in tea
1,500 bottles of fruit juice
30 bales or rice
4 barrels of sake
A year's supply of bottled green tea
1 ton of clams

For the Osaka tournament:

$5,000 worth of mandarins, peaches, and quality fruit
180 liters of soy sauce
A large quantity of other local products (examples include shabu shabu beef, umeshu brandy, and honey)

For the Nagoya tournament:

Quail eggs, chicken meat, 5 whole pigs, clams, and eels

For the Fukuoka tournament:

A year's supply of nori, strawberries, chicken, and rice
A year's supply of fish roe

For the Tokyo tournaments:

1 ton of rice
10 kg of beef steak
Shiitake mushrooms, strawberries, and persimmons


For a sport where the participants eat a lot, these food prizes can really save a lot of money for the sumo stable that houses a tournament winner.

[Ad@m]

[count2infinity]

Looks like it's going to be a packed and crazy night at the BJC tonight with #1 PSU vs #2 Iowa wrestling each other.

I was downtown with my wife for lunch and it's already pretty busy compared to normal Fridays. Pretty sure it'll be on the Big Ten Network.

[Shyster]

The Covid-delayed official retirement ceremony for former Yokozuna Hakuhō was held this weekend. The ceremony is called a danpatsu-shiki (lit. "hair cutting ceremony"). A danpatsu-shiki for a top wrestler is usually held in the main sumo stadium in Tokyo, and it features such events as exhibition sumo matches, sumo drumming, and singing (there are actually traditional sumo songs). Here's Hakuhō "final match" against his oldest son:



The close of every ceremony is where a series of invited guests (typically supporters and former and current wrestlers and coaches with some connection to the retiring wrestler) use scissors to snip off the retiree's topknot, with the last cut always made by the stablemaster of the retiree's sumo stable. Here's the final cut:



Afterwards there's a big banquet for the invited guests, and the retiree come out with his first "regular" haircut in years:



There's lots of stuff the sport gets wrong, but sumo knows how to throw a retirement party.

[count2infinity]

I wish the ufc would give Bo someone other than a dude that had lawn mowing gigs scheduled for this weekend.

[Pavel Bure]

@Shyster This was pretty informative for me. Almost like a beginners guide to Sumo. Pretty cool.

[Shyster]

I hadn't seen that video before. Pretty good. Thanks for the post.

I only noticed one minor error. The video says that kicking is prohibited. Kicking above the waist is prohibited, but one can absolutely kick at an opponent's legs. There's a whole subset of kimarite (the official list of 82 winning techniques) devoted to trips, leg hooks, and leg sweeps.

For my answer to the question at the end, I appreciate the traditions of sumo. This is a sport where you can watch old film reels from the 1930s or whatever, and everything looks exactly the same as it does now. It's a sport where many of its practices not only date back centuries, but they are based on Shinto religious traditions that date back even longer. Wrestlers stomp their feet and throw salt because those are both considered "purifying" under centuries-old Shinto religious practices, for example. Another example: each Yokozuna today picks one of two alternate style of ring-entering ceremonies (the dohyō-iri), called Unryū style and Shiranui style, which are named after 10th yokozuna Unryū Kyūkichi and 11th yokozuna Shiranui Kōemon, who supposedly originated each form. Those two yokozuna were active in the 1860s. So wrestlers today are doing dohyō-iri ceremonies that date back over 150 years.

[Shyster]

Congratulations to Hōshōryū (real name Byambasuren Sugarragchaa) for his promotion to the second-highest sumo rank of ōzeki. Making me feel old, Hōshōryū is the nephew of former yokozuna Asashōryū, who was the sole active yokozuna from 2003 to the elevation of Hakuhō in 2007. Hōshōryū is the son of Asashōryū's older brother. Ōzeki promotion generally requires a minimum of 33 wins over three tournaments while ranked at the top of the top division. Hōshōryū got his 33 wins and sealed the deal by winning the July tournament.