Sumo failed to keep champ in check

Sumo failed to keep champ in check

By MINORU MATSUTANI
Staff writer Japan Times

The bigger they come: Asashoryu holds a "guts pose" before a match at Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium in March 2008, then announces his retirement at a news conference

Yokozuna Asashoryu, who announced his retirement Thursday, is one of the strongest sumo wrestlers of modern times.

But his frequent misbehavior — long overlooked by the Japan Sumo Association — also made him one of the most controversial grand champions of all time, critics said.

"It's not only Asashoryu's problem. The root of the problem is the association's economic motive," said journalist Yorimasa Takeda, who accused Asashoryu of match-fixing in an article published in a weekly magazine in 2007.

Despite his "bad guy" image, Asashoryu was a fan magnet and thus generated a lot of money for the sumo industry, which was behind the association's reluctance to punish him severely, Takeda said.

http://ow.ly/14t8y


More here:
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For purposes of this analogy, I'm also assuming Asashoryu cheats on his wife.

He has kind of pushed against the grain in the tradition of Sumo. Its most likely he was asked on the sly to retire, rather then be forced to retire, because to force the best Sumo wrestler in the sport to retire, would be a scandal in an of itself.

Did you ever see Chiyonofuji?

If in Japan, I would go, as I love sports!

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...'cept I would NEVER wanna see him slide face-first into the bag.
.
Ew.
.
Don't go there.
.
.
.
.
Can't
.
hold
.
out
.
any
.
longer
.

.

It's just a caption away from being a roflcat.