Guwahati News Desk: After more than a thousand wins Sumo wrestling’s greatest champion, Yokozuna Hakuho, has decided to retire from the ring.
Hakuho informed the Japan Sumo Association on Monday about his retirement decision.
According to sources, Hakuho had been suffering from a knee condition, for which he had to undergo an operation on his right knee in the early part of 2021. In addition, he was even tested positive for coronavirus in January, which made him skip competitions, and for this reason the sumo officials cautioned him that skipping so many tournaments might result in forced retirement.
Although, he returned to form to win his 45th career championship in Nagoya in the month of July, but on Monday he finally decided to retire.
Regarding Hakuho’s sumo wrestling career, he rose to the top ranks of sumo wrestling after arriving in Japan from his native Mongolia at the age of 15. During his career, Hakuho recorded more titles, wins and perfect championships than any other wrestler in history.
It was in 2001, when he made his debut and was promoted to Yokozuna six years later. Since then, each year, Hakuho has won nearly one of the six yearly top tournaments, and he has done even better in the years 2010 and 2014 in which he won five of the six tournaments. In 2015, he surpassed Taiho’s milestone of 32 top-level victories set in 1971.
Hakuho’s career was packed with records and significant events, with 1,187 overall wins and 1,093 makuuchi division triumphs. He is also notably known for his wide-ranging attacking style and has been credited with bringing in new audiences to the sport.
Furthermore, Hakuho has stated that he now plans to train wrestlers, and in a way that would be a way of showing his gratitude to the sport.
Photo | The Japan Times/John Gunning
