Asahifuji’s winning streak came to an end tonight against Nabatame. He was defeated by a steady stream of tsuppari, and a clever arm grab. Asahifuji appeared ready to charge forward but Nabatame seized his left arm and yanked him forward. That forced Asahifuji to pull back while Nabatame kept up his tsuppari and drove him out.
Nabatame likely sealed his return to Juryo with the win. Asahifuji is guaranteed another tournament in Makushita. Any delusions of invincibility are gone. Despite the hype, we knew he would eventually lose a bout. Fitting that it came with, arguably, his first real test against a former sekitori aiming for his own return to Juryo. My message to those who are ready to crown him Yokozuna, “slow your roll.” Let’s see how he handles full-time sumo and he isn’t even there yet. Fighting every day for 15 days is a huge change. We now know that change will not be at Aki.
In Juryo, Arashifuji locked in his kachi-koshi by beating Shirokuma, who has dropped three in a row. I think his right leg is injured. Arashifuji is being chased by Asasuiryu, and two stablemates, Toshinofuji, and Midorifuji. Another stablemate, Enho beat Hatsuyama to improve to 5-4. Arashifuji will fight Tamashoho tomorrow.
Makuuchi Action
Takerufuji (7-2) defeated Asakoryu (4-5). Asakoryu pulled for a slapdown attempt but Takerufuji stayed up long enough to usher him out. Yorikiri.
Shishi (8-1) defeated Abi (5-4). Abi tried a similar strategy as Asakoryu and met a similar fate. Shishi picked up his kachi-koshi! Oshidashi.
Kinbozan (6-3) defeated Asahakuryu (2-7). Kinbozan used solid yotsu sumo and overwhelming strength to power through Asahakuryu and force him over the edge. Yorikiri.
Onokatsu (2-7) defeated Mitakeumi (1-8). Onokatsu timed his slapdown perfectly. Mitakeumi just began to charge forward so Onokatsu pivoted and slapped him down. Mitakeumi make-koshi. Hatakikomi.
Chiyoshoma (3-6) defeated Kazuma (3-6). After a brief flurry of harite and tsuppari, Chiyoshoma slipped his left hand back inside to Kazuma’s belt and yanked forward, pulling Kazuma down. Katasukashi.
Asanoyama (7-2) defeated Daiseizan (3-6). Asanoyama latched on to Daiseizan’s belt with his left hand and immediately used the grip to steer Daiseizan toward the exit. Daiseizan tried to switch up his grip, Asanoyama got his right hand around Daiseizan’s trunk and drove him over the edge. Yorikiri.
Takayasu (7-2) defeated Nishikifuji (6-3). Nishikifuji began to pull backward to slap Takayasu down when the gyoji, Yonosuke, decided to get in on the action and inexplicably moved behind Nishikifuji. He’d been fine off to the right side. I don’t know why he moved. Takayasu lowered his shoulder and blasted Nishikifuji from the dohyo, narrowly avoiding Yonosuke. Gunbai Nishikifuji??The boys climbed back onto the dohyo, unaware of what the gyoji’s decision was. Thank God for Kisenosato. He raised his hand when he saw Yonosuke signal to the head shimpan, for about the fourth time, “I’m going to give the kensho to Nishikifuji. Is that right?” Nishonoseki-oyakata, who was sitting behind the dohyo, was alert to Yonosuke’s quandry, “Qué?” and raised his hand. Thankfully the replay team got the right call and the gunbai was reversed. I think Yonosuke got mixed up and thought Takayasu was on the other side. Watashikomi.
Kotoeiho defeated Fujiryoga. Kotoeiho latched on with his left hand inside and right hand outside, then pulled Fujiryoga up and droce him out of the ring. Kachi-koshi. Yoritaoshi.
Fujiseiun defeated Tobizaru. Fujiseiun forced Tobizaru to the edge. Tobizaru tried to pivot and topple Fujiseiun by twisting to his right. Fujiseiun avoided the throw and steamrolled through Tobizaru, crushing him out over the edge. Yoritaoshi.
Oshoma (4-5) defeated Roga (3-6). Oshoma tried really hard to shove Roga’s head into the clay. Roga stayed up but Oshoma shoved him out. Oshidashi.
Halftime
Ura (3-6) defeated Wakamotoharu (3-6). Wakamotoharu is lost. He pulled and Ura slipped away and pushed him out. Oshidashi.
Daieisho (6-3) defeated Shodai (4-5). Daieisho thrust his right hand into Shodai’s throat making Shodai reconsider his life-choices. Shodai moved back and Daieisho thrust him from the dohyo. Tsukidashi.
Gonoyama (4-5) defeated Takanosho (3-6). Takanosho pulled and Gonoyama shoved him out. Oshidashi.
Sanyaku
Fujinokawa (4-5) defeated Oho (1-8). Oho let Fujinokawa get a morozashi. He thought he could kimedashi the smaller wrestler, overwhelm him with his considerable size advantage. Instead, Fujinokawa used his two-handed belt grip to heave Oho clear of the dohyo and then pitch him over the side. Oho needed help to get back up and seemed to be cradling his right arm. Oho make-koshi. Sukuinage.
Kotoshoho (4-5) defeated Hiradoumi (1-8). Kotoshoho used tsuppari to force Hiradoumi back to the edge. Hiradoumi charged forward and Kotoshoho shifted left and slapped him down. Tsukiotoshi.
Atamifuji (6-3) defeated Ichiyamamoto (4-5). Atamifuji charged ahead with overwhelming force and shoved Ichiyamamoto from the dohyo. Oshidashi.
Hakunofuji (7-2) defeated Kotozakura (4-5). Kotozakura began by pulling and tried to topple Hakunofuji with his right hand uwate at the edge. Life on the edge is perilous and Kotozakura seemed to understand that so he pressed forward to the center of the ring. While the two leaned into each other, at the center of the ring, Hakunofuji pulled and used his own right-hand overarm grip to heave Kotozakura to the ground. Uwatenage.
Churanoumi (3-6) defeated Kirishima (7-2). Churanoumi reached down with his left hand to get the front of Kirishima’s belt. So, Kirishima grabbed Churanoumi’s arm and appeared ready to bludgeon him with it. Churanoumi pulled his arm free, moved back and slapped down Kirishima. Gunbai Churanoumi. Mono-ii. The video replay booth checked to see if Churanoumi’s foot touched out. Gunbai upheld. Tsukiotoshi.
Aonishiki (8-1) defeated Onosato (5-4). Aonishiki shifted subtlely to his left, and used his left hand uwate to pull Onosato forward. Onosato stepped out as Aonishiki hopped on that injured left foot to stay in bounds. Uwatedashinage.
Yoshinofuji (5-4) defeated Hoshoryu (6-3). Yoshinofuji won this bout when Hoshoryu decided to pull. Yoshinofuji had a firm hold, both hands inside. Yoshinofuji’s left hand was at the back of Hoshoryu’s belt and his right was square under Hoshoryu’s shoulder. When Hoshoryu pulled back, Yoshinofuji charged ahead and cast him from the dohyo. Yorikiri.
Wrap-Up
Yusho Arasoi:
- 1-Loss: Aonishiki, Kotoeiho, Shishi
- 2-Losses: Kirishima, Hakunofuji, Takayasu, Asanoyama, Takerufuji
Hoshoryu will fight Aonishiki tomorrow. That’s a huge bout, obviously. Onosato will try to bounce back against Daieisho. Kirishima will take on a hungry Hakunofuji. Kotozakura will fight Oho, Atamifuji will take on Churanoumi and Kotoshoho will fight Ichiyamamoto. Yoshinofuji has faced the gauntlet and come out with a winning record. He’ll battle Gonoyama tomorrow and his schedule will be full of rank-and-filers from here out. I can imagine he might be testing Kotoeiho or Shishi if their runs continue.
Fujiseiun will fight Asanoyama, Kotoeiho will fight Abi, Takayasu will take on Tobizaru, Chiyoshoma will fight Takerufuji and Shishi is set against Asahakuryu.
I have a feeling this leaderboard will change dramatically over the next few days. It’s a very interesting list, I’ll say that, and it’s promising to be a thrilling Week Two.
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100 years ago, gyoji Yonosuke would use that knife, right :-) ?
There’s no historical record of a Gyoji ever taking their life due to a bad call, it has always been purely symbolic.
I thought so, it was just (inappropriate) jest.
Best bout of the day, Fujinokawa vs Oho. The little man gave up 62 kilos but still manhandled the bigger guy, and I mean manhandled. Threw him completely off the Dohyo. That bout was worth the price of admission. Looks like the little man is headed for Komosubi. Deservedly so. Great job. Oho along with Kotozakura are proving that carrying around 50+ kilos of fat is doing nothing to enhance their competitive ability. Both have been disappointing.
Spot on. And Fujinokawa must have practice-lifted Oho up a couple of times prior to the real thing.
Several days ago I commented that Kotozakura either lost weight or had become comfortable lugging it around. I hereby take back that (mis)observation. Again, I agree with your comment.
I got the impression for a few long seconds, Oho just didn’t want to get up and return to the dohyo after that. I know he’s injured, but he has to be thinking back to when he was in a three-way playoff with Hoshoryu and Kinbozan for the cup not so long ago. Perhaps wondering if this defeat looked as bad as it felt. It did look pretty bad.
The “little” man is 270 lbs. Incredible.
It is good to put that in perspective.
The crazy world of Fujinokawa. As he did in Osaka four months ago, beats both yokozuna, does this to Oho, will still struggle for the eighth win until the final day and remain cool as a cucumber throughout.
Oho proving he is currently not at Komusubi level, or able to withstand the battle mouse onslaught of Fujinokawa.
what is it Murray Johnson calls Fujinokawa? ‘The excitement machine’?
He’s not wrong. Much as I like Onosato (even if I think his sumo can be a bit one-dimensional) I am very pleased to see Aonishiki win today. One of my co-sumo fans at work posited an Aonishiki versus Shishi final. Interesting, but a way to go yet. Hosh and Kirishima? Did Churanoumi get the idea for a tsukiotoshi from Kotoshoho’s earlier match. Hosh forgot the tachiai.org advice of not pulling and move forward.
All fired up for highlights show later.
Onosato‘s sumo may be one-dimensional, but frankly, would U try many other processes, if U had one as successful as his freight train approach? I guess it’s up to the other rikishi, to force him to get multi-dimensional, as Hoshoryu has been doing.
I’m one of those who insisted he just concentrate on going forward. Guess I could have qualified it a bit.
I’d still concentrate on moving forward. He still almost won the bout but he definitely needs to keep Aonishiki’s left hand away from his belt.
Now THAT’S the sumo I love to watch from Nabatame. Hopefully in two months we’ll be seeing him in his personal kesho-mawashi again.
Oho and Kotozakura have not stood up well to improved young competition over the last ~2 years .. some humble reflection time is due for both ..
Onosato can learn from all this .. at least he’s has the diesel in first gear ..
Shishi must have markedly improved his upper body strength .. but I can’t see more that 10 W’s..
Yoshinofuji is not one to take lightly .. Hosh had his elbows up /out .. Yoshinofuji said thank you + seized the opening ..Hosh too often ignores fundamentals + relies on his reflexes ..
my bet is the yusho goes to someone w 2 losses..
You’re not wrong herbern, his freight train approach got him all the way to Yokozuna, so yep, up to the others to work out how to deal with it, as they are doing (yay Hosh!!).
I‘m glad Asahifuji‘s run ended today after his henka against a teenager yesterday. Karma.
For his career the loss doesn’t mean much though. The lower divisions are only the prelude for gifted rikishi, the not so talented ones are filtered out. My guess is that he will make the next step next basho and then we’ll see. (It was also my guess that Aonishiki‘s chances were 10% at best against Onosato…)
Onosato today MOVED FOWARD and lost. I think it was well prepared tactics by Aonishiki with his condition.
I was worried about his foot, and with his record against big O, it might be better to have a couple of kyujos.
Now, suddenly, he is a leading candidate for yusho. Great job Aonishiki!!
Aonishiki seemed to step into another dimension for a fraction of a second during today’s escape. I’ve watched it five times now and it still looks impossible.
Shishi v Aonishiki would be a dream yusho matchup. But I think Shishi will not be able to win against the Sanyaku when/if he gets to facing them.
Shishi probably cant beat them, but just the opportunity to fight them is invaluable experience for him.
Though I wish for Kirishima to become a Yokozuna one day, I just don’t think that his performance last basho was an equivalent to a proper yusho.
Therefore I am not really sorry that his rope run seems to be pretty much over already.
I had a question from a friend getting interested in sumo. What is the average duration of a sumo bout? I don’t know. Are there statistics for that? Or do I have to watch an entire basho with a stop-watch?
Well, the shimpan behind the dohyo is actually monitoring the time. The one on the left, facing the camera. You might see him flash hand signals during longer bouts. I do not have an official number for you, though I would think less than 10 seconds for a median. There seem to be fewer lengthy lean-fests nowadays. If you want to do include all of the buildup, salt throws, shiko, etc…, that will extend it to a few minutes.
Thanks Andy. He wants the actual combat time. I think I will monitor three days of bouts. If they are fairly consistent I will leave it at that!
The easiest way to measure the “combat time” is to use the NHK videos that Andy links every day of the basho. They have their time listed and you can pause them to help increase the accuracy of your time for each bout.
Extensive user tracking data shared on historic analytical hubs like Sumoforum.net reveals that the true mathematical median for a Makuuchi bout is roughly 5 to 7 seconds. While a solid 70%+ of matches end incredibly fast (within 2 to 5 seconds), the average is heavily skewed upward to about 10 to 12 seconds due to outlier matches. When two evenly matched belt-wrestling (yotsu-sumo) specialists get locked in a stalemate, a bout can easily last 45 to 90 seconds. These epic battles stick in our memories, but mathematically, they are rare exceptions.
Thank you! I wonder if this has been looked at recently and compared through the years. It would be an interesting metric as oshi and yotsu techniques seem to go through phases.
The median is of course not the same as the average duration. It eliminates those long bouts from the equation (as it does the very short ones).
So the median shows the „duration of an average bout“. If that makes a significant difference to the „average duration of all bouts“ is hard to tell.
It should, imo. Median would be shorter time than average time, of course because that very few but very long bouts.
Yes, that’s what one tends to expect.
But thinking about it all made me notice that things don’t add up in Akarui Taiyō‘s comment. If 70% of the bouts ended under five seconds, the median would have to be within the range of 2 to 5 seconds!
To me it seems a bit confusing unfortunately.
My initial response was based on scanning hand timed data over many years from various users on sumoforum.net. Makuuchi data (median: 5-7 seconds, mean: 10-12 seconds) is quite different from data for all divisions where 70% of bouts end in 2-5 seconds.
Here are some specific recent Makuuchi data points:
2025 May Makuuchi Tournament – Full 15 days:
Timed Bouts: 312
Mean: 9.67 seconds
Median: 5.85 seconds
Unfortunately, JSA doesn’t keep official record of bout times.
For the complete May 2025 tournament, data is from day-by-day bout times archived on Sumo Forum. The poster states that the times were transcribed from Nikkan Sports’ results pages. Walkovers are excluded, since no wrestling occurred and no duration was recorded.
Well, I thought my jaw couldn’t drop any further over a gunbai decision this basho. Turns out I was wrong. I’m with Andy, the only way the gyoji gets the Takayasu decision wrong is forgetting which way is which (assisted by his getting into and then having to get out of the way). Thankfully, it was overturned. Way to go Papa Bear!
Kotoeiho is wrestling incredibly well this basho. Not just the results, but good, solid yotsu-zumo. I hope he can keep this up.
What an escape by Aonishiki! The opening thrust from Onosato caught him flush (Onosato seems to have a knack for that against him), and his party was just enough to get Onosato off balance and get a little belt grip to usher the Yokozuna out. I’d have preferred a more comfortable (and repeatable-looking) first win over Onosato, but I’ll take it. Kachi-koshi for Ao!
Oh the irony! Kimura Yonosuke spent Jonokuchi watching over newest gyoji, Kimura Senshin, to be sure Senshin has learned his stuff. Who’s watching the Watcher, then? I’d love to see Yonosuke’s apology report; he looked so confused, standing there clutching the kensho envelopes and wondering who’s that rikishi standing there. If Kimura Senshin still needs observation, that should be the task of Kimura Motoki alone now. And maybe someone could offer a spare box seat to Senshin, and a notepad. Just for a couple of Makuuchi matches…. 😉
To be fair, I think getting almost run over by the rikishi at the edge, (and Takayasu is a colossus) threw the G y o j i for a total loop. We can all have a bad day at the office…. I am more impressed that the majority of calls are correct and they (gyojis) have full understanding of which side faces east and west.
That’s a very good comment imo. To be afraid of committing errors is probably one of the main reasons for mistakes.
reminds me of my.. short putt mitakes.
Nabatame prevailed, it was really nice to see. On the way to Sekitori again, that’s great! Sometimes he has this powerful air about him: ‚No, I won‘t lose to THIS guy!‘
And – happy birthday Chiyoshoma! I was impressed how minimalistic he dealt with heavy and fierce Kazuma. Patiently waiting for the mistake, here a little slap, there a little push, very economic. Obviously there‘s space for more experience to the youngster.
Fujinokawa vs Oho, small babyface against big babyface. I was DYING with laughter, when I saw these lifting moves. Had to stop the NHK Highlight stream with tears in my eyes. ‚Yes, try it again! YES – try it once again!‘ Un-be-lievable!
Churanoumi with strong determination today, his immediate firm maemitsu grip right from the tachiai was doom to Kirishima. I wonder if Churanoumi had this hand pull down move after release of the mawashi already in his plan. Effective!
Following fate brought both Yokozuna down today then. It is just as it is. ‚Lord, let it rain…‘