MATCH OF THE DAY: Mitakeumi and Daieisho! The old sad reddish-pinkish men unite. It was a pretty straightforward oshitaoshi win for Mitakeumi after a long, long snugglefest. It seemed Daieisho was exhausted at the end and was toppled over by Mitakeumi. Not great to see, but at least one of them could win.
KIMARITE OF THE DAY: Roga vs Kinbozan is the hesitant winner of this award for Roga’s uwatenage victory over the Kazakh. Roga basically executed a right roll and brought K-Bo down with him, which was a little odd-looking. Kinbozan had a pretty good tachiai but then it went downhill, so it could have been better.
PINK MAWASHI DAY SIX: Ura was up against another young hotshot today but, like he did against Kusano, prevailed! Onokatsu had nothing and Ura disposed of him neatly and swiftly by sukuinage. Well done.
OVERALL SUMMARY: Ryuden and Midorifuji looked a little cautious after their matches but neither has announced anything, so we’re assuming they’re fine. There’s still quite a group of winless rikishi, but Hitoshi is on a win streak, apparently. Hoshoryu leads the yusho.
The fun fact of the day is that, if anyone is interested in watching it, there will be a mock-sumo tournament in October from the 15th-19th in London, at the Royal Albert Hall. It’s not going to be a real basho, but it should be pretty entertaining to watch, and all the Makuuchi rikishi are slated to go along with some friends from Juryo and probably their tsukebito, or personal attendants, in Makushita.
In less fun news, older Makushita wrestler Mitoryu has retired at age 31 after a long sekitori career. He was a makushita-tsukedashi in his youth and debuted in 2017. He won a Juryo yusho last March, his second, and flew to Japan in the same plane as ex-Sekiwake Ichinojo and ex-Yokozuna Terunofuji. At nearly 200 kilograms, he was one of the larger wrestlers and was very popular among fans, including me. Love you, big guy!
Mitoryu, we wish you the best in your retirement and will miss you on the dohyo. He will not be remaining with the JSA. Good luck to him.