My matchup-of-the-day for Day 6 is Kisenosato vs Ikioi.

Ikioi almost claimed a gold star against Hakuho. But “almost” won’t get him the 8 wins he needs in the next 10 bouts for a winning record. It’s still possible but the longer he goes through the first week without a win, the harder it will become. So, simply, he needs this win against Kisenosato and he needs to bounce back quickly after that hard-to-swallow loss.

Terunofuji has been very impressive this tournament even though he’s only got two wins to show for it. Kaisei won’t be much of a match. Endo will battle Hakuho. His win over Jokoryu certainly looked exhausting but hopefully it was a confidence builder.

Goeido’s got another tough one against Ichinojo. Ichinojo’s been complaining of back issues but physicially he’s very much of a match for Tochinoshin who got the better of Goeido today. Even with the “back” issues, I’ll take Ichinojo in this and I’m very eager to see how he strategizes for this one. I was a bit disappointed today to see him get spun around so easily by Takayasu.