Report Card: 2025 Aki Basho - Part 2

Continuing to grade the top division rikishi who were involved in the July tournament.

I’m back with another report card from the September tournament. This time around I’m doing everyone from maegashira 10 to maegashira 5. That includes the surprising Takanōsho, the ever-popular Ura and the very disappointing Kotoshōhō and Ichiyamamoto.

Scroll down to see how I graded them all.

This is a premium post, since I need to justify having paid subscription levels. The pay-wall kicks in at the Kusano section. That means there’s just three and half reports pay-walled here. See, aren’t I, generous?

If you do decide to pay to read this whole article, that would mean a great deal. Paid subscriptions are what allow me to continue to cover sumo (in spite of how taxed I am for free-time right now).

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Bonus gif today is a rather tired looking Peach Prince.

I feel ya, big boy.

Churanoumi

Rank: Maegashira 10 West
Record: 9-6
Grade: B

Churanoumi banked his second 9-6 record in a row in September. He’s, quietly, been one of the winningest rikishi around since coming up to makuuchi in late 2023. He’s gone 92-76 over that time and has only had three bad tournaments (where he went 4-11). His struggles have come higher up the banzuke, so at this point he’s a pretty reliable kachi-koshi whenever ranked M10 or lower.

In September Churanoumi’s big slaps and shallow left hand grip were all on point. He was able to get that favoured mae-mitsu on most of his opponents, often in a way that pinches their right arms. He also showed good energy and athleticism, as seen below when he kept pace with the ferocious Fujinokawa.

Daieishō

Rank: Maegashira 10 East
Record: 7-8
Grade: C-

In September Daieishō was clearly still feeling the effects of the leg injury that took him out of the entire July basho. He got off to a really rough start, losing six of his first eight bouts. He may have started feeling better towards the end of the basho, though. He managed a nice little stretch of wins in the second week, including this beautiful oshi-zumō (pushing/thrusting) display over Kusano.

Daieishō took a risk in this tournament and it seemed to pay off. He managed to last the whole 15 days on his injured wheel and only suffered a single net loss. That means he’ll have a minimal demotion for November. If he’s in better shape in Kyushu he should put up a big number from this low a ranking.

Fujinokawa

Rank: Maegashira 9 West
Record: 6-9
Grade: D+

The kachi-koshi (winning record) evaded Fujinokawa in his second ever top division tournament, but boy was he fun to watch. The diminutive rikishi showed incredible heart and grit as he took the fight to much bigger men and, at times, was able to overwhelm them with his activity and his surprising raw strength.

This display against Rōga was one of his best matches from the tournament. He showed a lot of endurance and toughness to stall the bigger man and then demonstrated great balance, awareness and technique to execute the rare kakenage (hooking inner thigh throw).

Thankfully, this record won’t see Fujinokawa demoted from makuuchi. So we’ll get to see at least one more tournament with him scrapping with the big boys. For now, at least, he seems good enough to stick around in this bottom half of the maegashira ranks.

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Midorifuji

Rank: Maegashira 9 East
Record: 7-8
Grade: C-

Midorifuji just missed out on a winning record in September, but I’m not too mad at that. He usually struggles at this ranking. The last time he was here (in May) he lost his first nine matches in a row (and then won his last six). This part of the banzuke is the 29 year-old’s ceiling so getting close to a kachi-koshi is a decent outing for him.

He didn’t land his katasukashi (under shoulder swing down) in this tournament. When that move isn’t working for him he finds it very hard to get a good result. He hasn’t landed his trademark move at all since the March tournament (where he got it three times).

His best win in September was over title chasing Takanōsho. In this bout he did a great job of swatting away thrusts and then ducking under to get inside. That’s textbook sumo for a small guy against a pusher/thruster.

Four of Midorifuji’s seven wins were against pusher/thrusters (Kinbōzan, Daieishō, Ichiyamamoto and Takanōsho). The only pusher/thruster he didn’t beat was Fujinokawa. His other wins were against the lower ranked Nishikigi, Sadanoumi and Asakōryū (via henka). Other than those wins, he struck out against fellow yotsu-zumō practitioners (a common occurrence for him).

Kinbōzan

Rank: Maegashira 8 West
Record: 7-8
Grade: D+

Kinbōzan rebounded, slightly, from his terrible 4-11 in July. His make-koshi in September was confirmed with a Darwin match loss to Hiradoumi on the final day. Hiradoumi invoked his stablemate Sadanoumi (who has a fantastic record in Darwin matches) for that one. Kinbōzan faced mostly yotsu-zumō wrestlers in September. That’s just a fluke of the draw/banzuke. But Kinbōzan’s deficiencies in that department really make that a tougher schedule than it needs to be.

Kinbōzan does have an exciting style, so his matches were very watchable — especially his throw on Ichiyamamoto on Day 8. Too often, though, Kinbōzan seemed to lock his knees when in chest-to-chest battles and, as a result, found himself pulled off his feet quite easily.

Ura

Rank: Maegashira 8 East
Record: 10-5
Grade: A-

September was a fantastic month for Ura. This 10-5 is his best record since November, 2022. This is also his second kachi-koshi in a row after a longish stretch of losing records. His wins came in bunches in September. He didn’t ever have a long streak of wins, so he wasn’t ever really in a leading position in the tournament. Even so, he and his fans should be very happy with this performance (even if it means it’s likely to land him back in the jōi in November; it’s tough for him there lately).

Ura fought with a lot of intensity in September. He didn’t seem to stall, like he sometimes does, in order to try and set up outlandish finishes. Instead, he was putting his head down and really going after opponents with his thrusts and pull downs.

We may not have had the highlight reel finishes from Ura in September, but we did get some spirited (and aggressive) sumō from him. And I enjoyed seeing that.

Ōshoma

Rank: Maegashira 7 West
Record: 9-6
Grade: B+

I’m very happy with Ōshoma. He was terrible in July, going 4-11 in his debut tournament as a komusubi. In that tournament, his side-stepping/slapping down game did not translate for tougher opponents. I said back then that he needed to develop more threat going forwards so that opponents couldn’t sag back, expecting him to stand still waiting for them to attack. This time around, Ōshoma did just that. He was going forwards at his opponents and drilling them with good thrusts. That made his step-backs and side-steps far less telegraphed and he was able to catch guys coming forwards and pull them down with authority.

Check out this bout with Shōdai below.

Ōshoma did a great job in this bout at standing up to Shōdai’s pressure. Shōdai was having a good tournament and he’s a powerful yotsu wrestler. Ōshoma has struggled to handle guys like that in the past. But here he manages to keep himself inside the ring and resist Shōdai in the clinch.

In the last phase of this bout, Ōshoma wins by stepping forwards and jabbing Shōdai over the line. The old Ōshoma would have stalled in that position and waited for Shōdai to come forwards so he could attempt a slap down. I think that’s what Shōdai was expecting, too.

Ōshoma adding more venom going forwards elevates his sumo to a new level. If he keeps this up he’ll put lots of doubts in his opponents’ minds about what he’s going to do next and that’s going to give him lots of great opportunities to dictate a bout. That element of doubt, and fear, over which thing someone who is good at multiple things might do is what makes guys like Hoshōryū and Aonishiki so successful.

I’m not saying Ōshoma is going to be a sekiwake anytime soon. But the version I saw in September gives me some optimism over what we might see next from him.

Takanōsho

Rank: Maegashira 7 East
Record: 12-3, jun-yushō, kanto-shō
Grade: A-

This was another tournament where Takanōsho got off to a good start, but then hung around as a potential title threat until the very last few days of the basho. This is the third time he’s done that in the last year. In 2024 he went to a play-off with Terunofuji in July and then came close to butting into Kotozakura and Hoshōyū’s duel in November.

It’s hard to do that. We see lots of lower ranked wrestlers get off to good starts and then fade down the stretch. In this very tournament we saw Shōdai and Ryūden do just that. But as those two faltered, Takanōsho was able to hang in keep winning despite being matched up with some elites. On Days 10 and 11 he beat Shōdai and Ryūden to separate himself from those two. Then, down the stretch, he got wins over Kotozakura, Kirishima and Wakatakakage.

The Kotozakura win was typical of his tournament performance. His nodowa (throat thrust) was strong, but it was maximized by how mobile he was and how comfortable he looked moving laterally. Takanōsho isn’t always the quickest, but he seems to be able to lock in and really move well when he senses he’s in a hunt for a cup.

He’ll be in the jōi (at least) in November. The last time he was there he went 3-12. It might be that, in order to do well against the bigger names, Takanōsho needs to build momentum by beating up on rank-and-filers first.

Kusano

Rank: Maegashira 6 West
Record: 8-7
Grade: C

Kusano wasn’t that impressive in his second makuuchi basho. But he also didn’t suffer any kind of sophomore slump. He was sturdy and showed flashes of his potential and, most importantly, he got a winning record. Most of his losses came against guys who were having big tournaments (Takanōsho, Ura, Wakamotoharu, Churanoumi, Ōhō), too.

I’m not too concerned that he lost to that kind of calibre of opponents. Kusano is very good, but he’s not an Ōnosato or Aonishiki level prospect who is expected to be competing for cups right off the bat. I think he’s a future san’yaku wrestler, but it might take him some time to get there…