Opinion: What The F--- Just Happened?

This is an opinion article. The viewpoints presented are solely those of the author, and should not be construed as fact.

Ok, raise your hand if you expected Tochinoshin to win the yusho. Now, put your hand down, because you’re lying. No one saw this coming.

Some of the recent basho have been crazy, but this one takes the cake. Most basho seem to follow a basic pattern. After the first week, there will be a few guys from san’yaku who are undefeated or have one or two losses. They will usually be joined by a few guys from the maegashira ranks with matching records. As we reach nakabi and move into the second week, many of the maegashira men who started so well seem to fade away, while the strong week one performers from san’yaku battle for the yusho. But that’s not how this basho went.

The basho started relatively normally. As we reached nakabi, san’yaku rankers Kakuryu and Mitakeumi were undefeated, while Goeido followed with two losses. They were joined at the top one loss maegashira men Tochinoshin, Shohozan and Daieisho, as well as two loss Tochiozan, stopped the san’yaku men from pulling away with the basho. That’s when the basho turned on its head.

The second week saw the wheels come off for the some higher ranked rikishi. After starting with a strong 7-0, Kakuryu won hs next three bouts, but then suffered four consecutive defeats before winning on senshuraku, finishing 11-4. Goeido ended the first seven days with a 5-2 record, requiring just three wins to avoid being kadoban in March. In the second week, he got his three wins, but no more. Mitakeumi ended the first week with an impressive 7-0, fueling talks of a beginning of an ozeki campaign and a possible yusho. Starting on nakabi, he rattled off five consecutive losses, before finally getting his kachi-koshi on day 13, finishing 8-7.

While the leaders at the top experienced a chaotic second week, things went much better for the top performing maegashira rikishi. Shohozan and Daieisho, who started with identical 6-1 records, finished with identical 9-6 records, highly respectable at maegashira 9 and 13 respectively. Tochiozan, who started at 5-2, continued to fight well after nakabi, but suffered an injury on day 11, and finished 6-6-3.

This all leads us to the big surprise of the basho, Tochinoshin. He came into the basho at maegashira 3, a notoriously tough rank, as he was scheduled to fight everyone ranked above him. Despite this, he finished the first week at a near perfect 6-1, including wins over both ozeki. His lone loss came on day 7 against yokozuna Kakuryu. Starting on nakabi, Tochinoshin rattled off eight consecutive wins, including defeating both sekiwake. Tochinoshin wrapped up a surprising yusho win on day 14 with a win over Shohozan.

This basho followed a similar pattern to most previous basho. A few men from both san’yaku and the maegashira ranks start off strong, before some fall out of contention in the second week. What made this basho surprising was who stayed in the lead after nakabi, and who fell out of the yusho hunt. The san’yaku rikishi seemed to lose their way in the second week, while maegashira men seemed unfazed by the pressure of the leaderboard, resulting in a maegashira 3 holding the Emperor's Cup, and leaving sumo fans asking “what the f--- just happened?”