Tag: Sumo

Mongolian Power: Hoshoryu’s Victory Secures Yokozuna Status After Epic New Year Tournament

Mongolian Power: Hoshoryu's Victory Secures Yokozuna Status After Epic New Year TournamentThe 25-year-old Mongolian sumo wrestler Hoshoryu has marked a historic achievement by winning the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament…

Mongolian Power: Hoshoryu's Victory Secures Yokozuna Status After Epic New Year Tournament

The 25-year-old Mongolian sumo wrestler Hoshoryu has marked a historic achievement by winning the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament and securing his promotion to yokozuna, the highest rank in sumo.

Hoshoryu

The tournament concluded on January 26, 2025, at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan arena, where Hoshoryu rose to the top in dramatic fashion. Hoshoryu clinched his second Emperor’s Cup in a thrilling three-way playoff. After finishing the 15-day tournament with a 12-3 record alongside maegashira-ranked wrestlers Kinbozan and Oho, Hoshoryu triumphed by defeating both opponents consecutively. This victory follows his first title at the Nagoya tournament in July 2023, further cementing his place among Sumo’s elite.

Sumo Wrestling

Hoshoryu’s path to yokozuna was paved by his consistent performance in recent tournaments. He finished as the runner-up at the November Kyushu tournament with an impressive 13-2 record, setting the stage for his promotion bid. The New Year tournament championship provided the necessary “championship-caliber” performance, prompting a meeting of the Yokozuna Deliberation Council, which is expected to formally recommend his promotion.

Hoshoryu 2

Despite his success, Hoshoryu faced setbacks during the tournament, including three losses to lower-ranked wrestlers. These losses threatened his promotion, but Hoshoryu bounced back and dominated critical matches. His promotion also comes at a pivotal time for sumo, as it fills the void left by the mid-tournament retirement of Terunofuji, who had been the lone active yokozuna.

Hoshoryu’s rise to yokozuna is significant for his achievement but also for his family legacy. As the nephew of former yokozuna Asashoryu, Hoshoryu carries forward a major legacy in sumo. His promotion marks a defining moment in his career and in sumo history, making him one of the youngest to reach the yokozuna rank.

Hoshoryu 3

What is Yokozuna?

Yokozuna is the highest rank in sumo wrestling. It represents a wrestler’s mastery and dominance in the ring. To achieve this rank, a sumo wrestler must display consistent excellence over an extended period, including strong performances in major tournaments. The rank is not awarded automatically; it requires approval from the Yokozuna Deliberation Council, which considers a wrestler’s overall record, skill, and character.

A yokozuna must maintain a high level of performance and uphold the honor of the sport. The rank is also a key part of sumo’s traditions, with yokozuna serving as role models for aspiring wrestlers. There are typically only a few active yokozuna at a time, making it one of the rarest achievements in the sport.

Ura Goes Flying in Exceptional Sumo Wrestling Match

Ura Sumo Wrestling ?? ??Ura Kazuki is a fan favorite in the sumo wrestling community as he is well-known for his exciting style….

Ura Sumo Wrestling ?? ??

Ura Kazuki is a fan favorite in the sumo wrestling community as he is well-known for his exciting style. In the Kyushu basho, November sumo wrestling tournament, he had quite a matchup against Hiradoumi.

Ura And Sumo Wrestling

Each year, Sumo wrestling hosts six tournaments throughout the calendar in which only one champion can walk away with the ultimate victory. Each Grand Sumo Tournament is called a basho, the champion is the yusho, the top league is makuuchi and the second highest league is juryo. Each Grand Sumo Tournament lasts for fifteen days and a sumo wrestler will have one match on each day.

An unusual and dramatic situation unfolded during the bout between Ura and Hiradoumi on Day 11 of the current tournament. During the match, two mono’ii were called. A mono’ii is a conference of judges called when there’s uncertainty about the outcome of a bout. Having two mono’ii in a single match is extremely rare. The match had to be restarted twice. This is unusual in sumo wrestling. But led to quite a photo of Ura, with all three hundred pounds of him, tilted entirely horizontally and flying through the air.

Essentially, sumo wrestling matches are won by pushing an opponent out of the ring or making the opponent crash to the ground. But, if sumo A pushes sumo B out of the ring while crashing the ground, the match is still won by sumo A due to intent, even if he hit the ground first. But if it is not clear who landed on the ground or went out first, or it is not clear who had the intent, then the match is restarted by the referees and judges. In the case of Ura and Hiradoumi the match had to be restarted twice as the referees could not agree on what was going on.

Ura’s career has been a rollercoaster ride of success and setbacks. He reached the top makuuchi division in March 2017, but his progress was halted by two serious injuries that led to extended layoffs. These setbacks caused his rank to plummet to the lowest levels since his debut, and it took him three and a half years to return to top-level competition. In sumo wrestling, Ura is considered small at 313 lbs and 5’9″.

Ura Sumo Wrestling ?? ?? 1
ura sumo 2

UFC Fighter Vanessa Demopoulos Faced a Sumo Wrestler; The Results Were Hilarious

Vanessa DemopoulosUFC’s ‘Lil Monster’ Vanessa Demopoulos has made her first, and likely last foray into sumo wrestling. Reminiscent of the UFC’s early days when weight classes were unheard of, the strawweight competitor decided to test her skills against Egyptian sumo wrestler Ramy Elgazar. Tipping the scales at 499 pounds, Elgazar outweighs Demopoulos by more than 380 […]

Vanessa Demopoulos

UFC’s ‘Lil Monster’ Vanessa Demopoulos has made her first, and likely last foray into sumo wrestling.

Reminiscent of the UFC’s early days when weight classes were unheard of, the strawweight competitor decided to test her skills against Egyptian sumo wrestler Ramy Elgazar. Tipping the scales at 499 pounds, Elgazar outweighs Demopoulos by more than 380 pounds. Needless to say, the sparring match did not go Demopoulos’ way.

Posting a video clip of the brief, but entertaining encounter on Instagram, Vanessa Demopoulos stated that “size doesn’t matter,” but the way things played out, she may have been mistaken. At the start of the contest, ‘Lil Monster’ jumps into the arms of Elgazar with something akin to professional wrestling. Perhaps she was going for a cross-body block or a hurricanrana, but neither worked out in her favor. Instead, Demopoulos was playfully launched head over heels and slammed back down onto the mat. The smile on her face following the slam clearly showed the two were just having some fun.

“It was an honor to wrestle World Class Professional Sumo Wrestlers,” said Demopolous in her post on social media.

Vanessa Demopoulos is Riding High Following Back-to-Back Wins in the Octagon

Despite a loss in Dana White‘s Contender Series, Vanessa Demopoulos was given an opportunity to compete at a UFC Fight Night event in August 2021. On that night she fell to opponent JJ Aldrich via unanimous decision. When it seemed like her UFC career had been cut short, ‘Lil Monster’ got the call to face Silvana Gómez Juárez five months later at UFC 270.

Scoring a first-round submission via armbar, Demopoulos famously jumped into the arms of Joe Rogan during her post-fight interview. ‘Lil Monster’ replicated the celebration with Michael Bisping in June following a split decision win over Jinh Yu Frey.

Following the win, Vanessa Demopoulos confirmed that she would be back in the Octagon before the end of 2022, but was going to take her family on vacation first.

“I’m looking forward to fighting in MMA prior to the end of the year,” said Demopoulos while speaking to Cageside Press. “Right now, my full focus is being able to go on this vacation with my family, which I promised them for so many years now, that as soon as I made it to the UFC, I’ll go to Greece with you guys. So that’s coming up at the end of this month. I couldn’t be happier to spend family time, and then once I get back, I’m gonna be right back into gear and ready to rock n’ roll.”

Must See: 400-Pound Sumo Wrestler Gets Ragdolled, Causes Minor Earthquake

(Warning: Shrill audio and excessive fat-guy ass-crack. Props: Andbabcock via Reddit_MMA)

We usually don’t give sumo wrestling much attention on this site — look, if I wanted to see two fat guys try to push each other out of the way, I’d go to a Golden Corral five minutes before closing time — but this was too incredible not to post. The above video was taken yesterday at the US Sumo Open in Los Angeles, where Mongolian beast Byamba Ulambayar took on Kelly “Man of Fat Steel” Gneiting, a 400+ pound sumo, swimmer, and marathon runner. Gneiting’s athletic accomplishments are stunning for a man of his girth, but on this particular Sunday he was tossed like a disobedient puppy. The moment of impact produces a shockwave through the earth, visibly rattling the camera, and it is absolutely wonderful. Enjoy.


(Warning: Shrill audio and excessive fat-guy ass-crack. Props: Andbabcock via Reddit_MMA)

We usually don’t give sumo wrestling much attention on this site — look, if I wanted to see two fat guys try to push each other out of the way, I’d go to a Golden Corral five minutes before closing time — but this was too incredible not to post. The above video was taken yesterday at the US Sumo Open in Los Angeles, where Mongolian beast Byamba Ulambayar took on Kelly “Man of Fat Steel” Gneiting, a 400+ pound sumo, swimmer, and marathon runner. Gneiting’s athletic accomplishments are stunning for a man of his girth, but on this particular Sunday he was tossed like a disobedient puppy. The moment of impact produces a shockwave through the earth, visibly rattling the camera, and it is absolutely wonderful. Enjoy.

[VIDEO] Tom Lawlor Sumo-Wrestles His Way Into Canada’s Heart at the UFC 154 Open Workouts

I’d like to consider myself a psychologist of sorts, the way that George Costanza considers himself an architect. Sure, my degree might have been acquired less at an accredited institute and more in my own imagination, but based on several interviews I’ve either read or watched in the past, I can professionally declare that Tom Lawlor is crazier than a sack of rabid weasels. The crazy ring entrances, the outfits, this isn’t a man trying to leave his stamp on the UFC, these are the early signs of schizophrenia. Trust me, I’ve diagnosed this sort of thing before.

And while I wouldn’t declare Lawlor sane enough to stand trial, let alone fight professionally for a living, I will gladly watch his decent into madness if it means more antics like the stuff he pulled at the UFC 154 open workouts, which will easily go down as the coolest open workout display since ever.

An unabashed fan of the WWE, Tom introduces his trio of sumo as the “Sumo Suave” to Ariel Helwani in the above video before squaring off with both gentlemen after the jump. Diapers were worn. Necks were bitten. Enjoy.

I’d like to consider myself a psychologist of sorts, the way that George Costanza considers himself an architect. Sure, my degree might have been acquired less at an accredited institute and more in my own imagination, but based on several interviews I’ve either read or watched in the past, I can professionally declare that Tom Lawlor is crazier than a sack of rabid weasels. The crazy ring entrances, the outfits, this isn’t a man trying to leave his stamp on the UFC, these are the early signs of schizophrenia. Trust me, I’ve diagnosed this sort of thing before.

And while I wouldn’t declare Lawlor sane enough to stand trial, let alone fight professionally for a living, I will gladly watch his decent into madness if it means more antics like the stuff he pulled at the UFC 154 open workouts, which will easily go down as the coolest open workout display since ever.

An unabashed fan of the WWE, Tom introduces his trio of sumo as the “Sumo Suave” to Ariel Helwani in the above video before squaring off with both gentlemen after the jump. Diapers were worn. Necks were bitten. Enjoy.

Speaking of psychopaths in Depends, make sure to swing by CagePotato tomorrow at 10 pm EST for our liveblog of all of the UFC 154 action.

–J. Jones

Video: 200-Pound Judo Player Destroys Group of Hopeless Fat-Bodies in Sumo Tournament

(Props: NYCulturalPhysician via RedditMMA)

The athletic gaijin in the video above is Pavel Bojar (aka Takanoyama Shuntaro), a Czech sumo wrestler who has worked his way into Japan’s top Makuuchi division, despite being one of the lightest competitors in modern sumo history. At 6’1″ and just 200 pounds, Bojar relies on his judo background to make up for the tremendous weight disadvantages he generally faces, employing a slick arsenal of throws and trips, rather than just bull-rushing his opponents out of the ring. Watch the above video to see how far a little bit of actual grappling talent can get you in this weird sport. Look, I’m not trying to crack on the rich history of Japanese sumo wrestling, but for God’s sake, check out the tits on the guy at the 1:52 mark, who had just finished falling out of the ring like a moron. This is an athlete? Ronda Rousey would ruin half of these guys.


(Props: NYCulturalPhysician via RedditMMA)

The athletic gaijin in the video above is Pavel Bojar (aka Takanoyama Shuntaro), a Czech sumo wrestler who has worked his way into Japan’s top Makuuchi division, despite being one of the lightest competitors in modern sumo history. At 6’1″ and just 200 pounds, Bojar relies on his judo background to make up for the tremendous weight disadvantages he generally faces, employing a slick arsenal of throws and trips, rather than just bull-rushing his opponents out of the ring. Watch the above video to see how far a little bit of actual grappling talent can get you in this weird sport. Look, I’m not trying to crack on the rich history of Japanese sumo wrestling, but for God’s sake, check out the tits on the guy at the 1:52 mark, who had just finished falling out of the ring like a moron. This is an athlete? Ronda Rousey would ruin half of these guys.