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The story
The Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament reached its final day on the 27th, with yokozuna Onosato defeating ozeki Aonishiki by a thrusting force-out to clinch his sixth career championship — his first in six tournaments — finishing 12-3. Onosato lost to maegashira Takayasu on day four but then reeled off eight straight wins to build a commanding lead, only to drop back-to-back bouts to ozeki Kirishima on day 13 and ozeki Kotozakura on day 14, letting Aonishiki draw level at 11-3. In the tournament’s first final-day showdown between tied leaders in 11 tournaments, the yokozuna finally shoved his way to victory. On 5ch, many posters praised Onosato’s grit as a yokozuna, while others weighed in on the ozeki-vs-ozeki bout and speculated about next tournament’s ozeki and yokozuna promotion pushes.
The final day of the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament was held on the 27th at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan, where in the tournament’s closing bout yokozuna Onosato (26, Nishonoseki stable) defeated ozeki Aonishiki (22, Ajigawa stable) to finish 12-3 and claim his sixth career title — his first since last year’s Autumn tournament. It’s his third straight title at the Autumn meet, a tournament he clearly has a knack for, and his fifth Emperor’s Cup won at the Ryogoku Kokugikan.
It was a decisive win: a sharp charge at the face-off, a two-handed thrust to push his opponent back, and a relentless drive forward to force him out.
This tournament, Onosato lost to maegashira Takayasu on day four but bounced back with eight straight wins. He briefly built up a two-win lead, but then suffered a shocking pair of back-to-back losses — an underarm-throw reversal to ozeki Kirishima on day 13, followed by a slap-down loss to ozeki Kotozakura (28, Sadogatake stable) on day 14. That let Aonishiki, who had rallied with eight straight wins of his own after dropping three in a row from day four, draw level at 11-3. But in the end Onosato showed true yokozuna grit, winning the tournament’s first final-day showdown between tied leaders in 11 tournaments.
Source: sponichi.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Exactly this.
He went for it in one shot before any hesitation could creep in.
Kirishima: 8-7
Would you two get it together already
Fine, I'll give them credit for beating the yokozuna and hyping things up, at least.
Guess that resets both Atamifuji's (nickname "Atamin") ozeki bid and Aonishiki's (nickname "Aotan") yokozuna bid.
Aonishiki isn't even on a yokozuna run.
Throw in Hoshoryu and it's like a three-way game of rock-paper-scissors between them.
Uh, he did pull, lol.
No way it is —
down in makushita there are two Mongolian wrestlers, Asahifuji and Tenshozan, who are on a historically elite level even by Mongolian standards, and they're about to move up soon…
The fact that he couldn't do that means he must've been in some serious pain.
Though, every wrestler's carrying some injury or other these days.
Re: #24
I only remember him getting crushed in Juryo, so it's great to see him hang in there like this.
Minohama's pretty low-key, but he even beat Aonishiki when Aonishiki was on an absolute tear — glad to see his quiet strength finally getting some recognition.
If he'd won today, he'd have been on a yokozuna run starting next tournament.
That's what I meant by it being reset back to square one.
Sorry if that was confusing.
It's the "or an equivalent record" clause.
If he goes something like undefeated next tournament, maybe he's still got a shot.
Well, that just shows how hard it is to keep winning for two straight tournaments with mind, technique, and body all in sync.
Being strong "sometimes" doesn't cut it for yokozuna.
Even higher than pro baseball lol
Meanwhile the WBC's sitting at 0% lmao
The final day when Aonishiki won it all pulled over 20%, after all.
Shh, don't mention that the pro baseball broadcasts airing in the same time slot have posted ratings of like 1-2% multiple times.
And definitely don't mention it's come in dead last among same-timeslot programs more than once too.
Maybe finish all 15 days first.
It's surprisingly rare to find a photo that really conveys anger…
In that sense, it's rough on him.
If he'd stayed ozeki, he'd have gone down as a legendary one, though.
Well, nothing's gone right for him this past year, so of course he'd want something to cling to.
He had 12 wins last tournament, so if he gets 13 wins or ties for the championship this time, he should get the promotion.
Background and Talking Points
The standard for promotion from ozeki to yokozuna is officially “winning two consecutive tournaments, or an equivalent record,” with no explicit numerical benchmark for wins. Kirishima beat Onosato on day 13 but ultimately finished 8-7, pushing his yokozuna bid to next tournament or beyond. Aonishiki also lost, finishing 12-3, but some posters in the thread felt continued strong results could still put a yokozuna promotion within reach. This was the first time in 11 tournaments that a final-day showdown between tied leaders featured wrestlers of yokozuna/ozeki rank, and the relative rarity of such down-to-the-wire bouts in recent years is cited as one reason this one drew so much attention. Some posts also speculated about “favor-trading” (star lending/borrowing) between the two ozeki, but it’s worth noting this isn’t based on any objective evidence — it remains pure fan speculation.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisokusoku+) thread “【Sumo】Autumn tournament finale: Onosato’s tearful comeback! Third straight Autumn title! Beats Aonishiki in a final-day tied-leaders showdown to claim his 6th championship — the lone yokozuna shows his grit“
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