David Beckham

Sumo is a contact sport in which a wrestler tries to force another wrestler out of a circular ring or to get him to touch the ground with anything else but the soles of his feet.

The sport includes a bunch of ritual elements, such as the salt purification, which we will see in detail in the video clip below. This goes back to the days when it was used in the Shinto religion.

From what I have been able to find out is that the daily life of a professional sumo fighter is very strictly regimented by the Sumo Association and that means even meals and traditional dress code.

Oh, by the way, Mongolian wrestling and Chinese Shuai jiao, both offer some resemblance to Sumo.

Most Sumo matches last only several seconds, as one wrestler is explosively ousted from the ring. In far fewer cases, a match can last several minutes, but this is more the exception than the rule.

The wrestling ring itself is 4.55 meters or somewhere around 14 feet in diameter. The whole square surface that holds the ring takes up 16.26 meters or about 140 sq. ft. I hope my former math teacher isn’t reading this and checking my conversions from meters to feet.

Japan is the only country that offers professional Sumo and there are approximately 700 fighters registered with 54 fighting stables.

Sumo’s hierarchy is strictly based on merit which can also mean that if a wrestler doesn’t continue his winning performances and starts losing bouts he can be demoted and lose his rank. This means serious competition and extreme pressure on fighters to perform at a very high level.

Currently, the Sumo Association only allows 1 foreign fighter per stable, which means a total of 54, right?!

And from what I understand the one foreign fighter who really stands out right now and who has attained the rank of ozeki or Champion (that’s right below yokozuna or Grand Champion!).

Born in Bulgaria as Kaloyan Stefanov Mahlyanov and former Greco-Roman wrestler, he is now fighting as Kotooshu Katsunori, at times referred to as the ‘David Beckham of Sumo’ and also the ‘Prince of Sumo’.

Kotooshu is 6’8″ tall and weighs 334 lbs., which, believe it or not, is fairly light considering his height and that’s because he is often compared to former Gand Champion Akebono from Hawaii, who at the same height weighed about 517 lbs.

I selected a fight between Kotooshu and Grand Champion Asashoryu that I really enjoy, even though I don’t really follow a lot of Sumo, but I can appeciate the traditional rituals, strategy, tactics and very proficient grappling with a bunch of explosive power.

I hope you like it, too.