re: pound for pound, defined

[austink@network.or.jp]

kawika@gol.com wrote:

>Akebono had Taka's number until: a) he got too fat & b) 
>Taka put on some
>weight.

>Does anyone agree or disagree with this comment?


Takanohana was in makushita when he was a teen ager, so I think it needs 
to be understood that his body did alot of maturing in front of our 
eyes.Taka is probably just a bit too 'fat' now, the weight he put on all 
of a sudden after his marriage has really slowed him down and robbed him 
of some of his maganificent fluidity. But, with that sense of balance, it 
really doesn't matter. 


Taka always used to say in interviews a few years ago that he want to put 
on some extra weight, which was, of course, to counter Akebono's (and 
Musashimaru's) thrusting attacks.


I think Akebono's knee injury robbed him of his first step which use to 
be alot more explosive than it is now. You never use to see anybody do a 
'henka' on him before, and he was able to knock a guy straight back in 
the matter of a few seconds. Now, even if he does knock a guy off the 
dohyo, it is more to the side than it was before. Opponents have that 
spilt second now to maneveur that they didn't have before.


Then again, that slowness could be because he put on more weight.You 
know, after he got operated on, he hired this flaky trainer who was on 
some of the variety programs in Japan at the time. The guy had some of 
his own notions about training and I can remember reading an article 
about how Ake's doctors were at odds with the training schedule this 
trainer had him on.


Then again, you can't believe everything you read, especially in the 
Japanese mass media.  


About the 'Konishiki/Hinkaku' discussion that motivated alot of people to 
post:


I always thought that it was a set of 'faux pas' by both parties on this 
one. First, that sumo "elder" spouting off how he didn't think "gaijins" 
had enough "hinkaku", which is a statement which was bound to be pulled 
out of context even if he meant only Konishiki by it.


And then the question of this comment being made over the phone by 
Konishiki saying "that" word - "discrimination" - to a reporter, which 
later got attributed as being said by a deshi.All of which was an affair 
which me kind of wonder. Especially when Konishiki came out with the 
excuse that he didn't know what the word for "discrimination" was in 
Japanese. 


As for making yokozuna, Konishiki was right there on the cusp of it. He 
had won two out of three bashos and all he had to do, especially in light 
of this "hinkaku" statement, was put in a good basho and it was there. 
But, he lost on the third or fourth day and just plummeted down hill. He 
went 9 and 6 at that basho. I can't imagine a worse basho ever posted by 
a yokozuna canidate.


At the time,I remember something about how some one,probably an NHL 
English announcer, said the Sumo Kyokai had gotten burned by making 
Onokuni (Hope I got his rikishi name right, just in case his nickname was 
'Panda') yokozuna, which didn't pan out because Onokuni didn't do much of 
anything after making the rank, and even suffered the first losing basho 
ever in history by a yokozuna. So, they weren't going to let Konishiki, 
or anybody, get the rank without proving to have the mettle to uphold it. 


I don't remember anyone every posting it on this  list, but I would like 
to thank Konishiki.When I came to Japan I immediatetly rooted for him 
just because he was a gaijin, but after I cheered for him because he 
began to strike me as the type of guy you always would like to have 
around. I guess we all would like to see him rumbling up the steps of the 
dohyo forever.


Everybody thought that once he lost his ozeki rank and he began to 
quickly slip down the banzuke that he would retire. The basho which was 
suspose to be his last was a couple of years ago, He was at the bottom of 
the banzuke and was going to drop into juryo and retirement for sure.So, 
NHK taped a special program named "Arigato Konishiki" during that basho. 
But, Konishiki made the program title irrelevant because made kachi 
koshi, and he did so until this last basho.To me personally, as 
outstanding as his record as an ozeki is, this was his greatest 
achievement.


I once read this in an newspaper article in a Japanese newspaper after 
Akebono became yokozuna. The article said that when it came to gaijin 
rikishi, Takamiyama built the stage, Konishiki built its steps and 
Akebono climbed them.


James Karkoski