[sumo] Asashoryu - One of the best ever ?

[Charles Beauchamp]

--- "O'Flaherty, Brian"
<brian.o'flaherty at banctec.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi,
>   I just thought I'd ask the question and hopefully
> start a discussion about
> Asa now that there's no more sumo until the new
> year.  
> 
> At what point can we start asking is he one of the
> greatest yokozuna ever,
> or have people already started asking it ?  
> 

The answer is self evident.  There is no question that
he is one of the greatest Yokozuna of all-time.  The
real question now is whether or not he already is THE
greatest of all-time.


> I mean, maybe we are going through a relatively lean
> period of real top
> drawer wrestlers (with only really Hakuho on the
> horizon) and this could
> explain why he is the sole yokozuna. 

That would make some sense except that there is a top
level Ozeki who overlapped the period of other recent
dominant Yokozuna in Kaio.  Kaio was a contemporary of
Akebono, Musashimaru and Takanohana..competed at near
their level as an occassional yusho threat and was
present when Asashoryu made his rise and blew right by
him to the top.

Tochiazuma looks to have the goods to have been at
least the equal of the top Sekiwake and minor Ozeki of
the Taka/Akebono era.  

Overall I would say the competition of the past 5
years is just a notch less then what we saw in the
1990's, but this Yokozuna dominates in a way that I
doubt Maru, Akebono or Taka would have been capable
of....if for no other reason then those guys were all
more injury prone.


 Or maybe we're
> not - maybe Asa is so
> far ahead of the rest and is winning so prolifically
> that he, and he alone,
> is the reason he is the sole yokozuna and that
> because of him, no-one else
> can get near the pre-requisites to be promoted
> alongside him - which kind of
> makes it apt that he is in a league (rank) of his
> own.
> 

This seems more likely to me.  He just wins too much
for anyone else to be anything other then second
fiddle.

> Add to that the fact that current record-holders are
> no doubt nervously
> watching his number of basho wins rapidly increase.
> 
> I'm interested in how the more knowledgeable in here
> and those more au fait
> with what has gone before, regard Asashoryu in the
> grand scheme of things
> and where they think he sits in the overall all-time
> banzuke, and where they
> think he will ultimately sit when he does retire.
> 
> Personally I think he is right up there with the
> best of them, although I
> came into sumo just as Akebono was promoted, so I
> only know those previous
> to him through anecdotes and statistics.
> 

I am no old timer but it seems clear that unless he
suffers a career wrecking injury he very well likely
will be the all-time leader in Yusho in the next 4
years.  

This Yokozuna is the most dominate in 60 years.

v/r Beau


 
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