18 July 2021

So we have reached the end of the Nagoya tournament and what a 
tournament. The yusho race has been a battle between Hakuho and 
Terunofuji. Both are at the last day with 14 wins and no losses. We 
have seen the bizarre bouts between the yusho chasers and Tobizaru. 
Truely odd with Tobizaru trying to keep out of arms reach from either 
and ended up head butting instead. Tobizaru has failed to live up to 
his name (flying monkey) and only went past the judges a couple of 
times. He did send Tamawashi flying with a great right handed belt 
throw today though. 

Alongside Hakuho and Terunofuji, there have been some good double 
digit winning records with Tamawashi, Kotonowaka, Ichinojo, Ura and 
Horshoryu.

All of these are ones to watch and it is nice to see some good win 
records. Ura returned back to Makuuchi (top division) after suffering 
injury a couple of years ago and is showing why he belongs there. 
Ichinojo has done better than expected. He cannot be called a Snorlax 
on this tournament's performance. Some great wins and hopefully a 
special prize is coming his way. Horshoryu has proven himself a 
curious performer with great technique and heart. There have been some 
interesting bouts and wins pulled from the edge of defeat. Besides, 
how can you not be impressed when you see someone toss Ichinojo, a 
200kg beast like a rag doll? 

On the other end of the performance scale, we see Tochinoshin fading. 
He had a truely awful start but seems to have redeemed himself in the 
latter half to get a 7-8 kache-koshi (losing record). Wakatakakage 
suffered from his first time at Komosubi. Not surprising but a little 
disappointing. 

There were lots of darwin matches where the winner gets their 
make-koshi (winning record) and the loser get their kachi-koshi 
(losing record). Shodai and Takayasu found theirselves in this 
position. Well Shodai clinched it and avoided being at risk of 
demotion. It was a comical shoving and spinning match.

So who won the battle of the yusho? Was it Hakuho, returning for his 
first full tournament in a year, or Terunofuji, winner of the past 2 
yushos and looking for another to get promotion to join Hakuho as a 
Yokozuna? They faced one another, both strapped up with supports on 
ailing joints, both with the determination to be the winner. Lots of 
mind games to be the last to make noise, lots of staring each other 
out during the set up phase. Hakuho throws a sloppy decoy slap but 
then puts elbow to face instead. They grapple, slaps galore, end up in 
a belt grip deadlock, quickly escape. Fierce quick action going on. 
Crowd cheers, whoops, gasps and ooos regardless of their requirement 
to only clap. Then suddenly Hakuho lost his grips on Terunofuji's 
belt. Terunofuji has just his right hand on Hakuho's belt. Hakuho 
seems to deflect all of Terunofuji's attempts to use that belt grip. 
Then suddenly Hakuho flips Terunofuji to the ground and wins his 45th 
Yusho. A remarkable achievement. The wrestler with the second most 
yusho is Taiho (retired) who won 32. The look on Hakuho's face will 
get him into trouble for not showing sufficient restraint but who can 
blame him? Just 4 months after knee surgery he dominated the 
tournament. The reaction of the Yokozuna council will be interesting. 
Will they ask for more? Will this be Hakuho's last tournament? The 
question of Terunofuji's promotion to Yokozuna will also be pressing. 
Typically a wrestler needs 2 yusho as an Ozeki to be recommended for 
promotion. This can include 'yusho winning behaviour' too. There have 
certainly been Yokozuna who have only won a single tournament. 
Terunofuji certainly has shown the spirit, technique and power to be a 
good Yokozuna and with his winning record, it would be a crime to not 
promote him. We shall see what happens on Wednesday when the Yokozuna 
council normally meet. 

A brilliant basho with some good twists and turns. Yes it was clear 
that only 2 people were in the yusho race but it was a fantastic final 
match to decide the winner. Time to watch it again I think!