With Sunday the first day of the 2014, Haru Basho in Japan’s third most populous city of Osaka, many fans and commentators will be looking at Kakuryu’s quest to win his first ever yusho, and, if successful, the resulting talk of promoting him to yokozuna.
With all eyes on Japanese ozeki Kisenosato in January in his quest to become the 71st yokozuna in the sport’s history, the Mongolian came from nowhere to record a brilliant 14-1 record and force a last day play-off with Hakuho.
Despite losing the play-off, his score over the 15 days of regulation and the quality of his sumo immediately generated talk of will he, won't he be considered for promotion — if he can repeat his performance or go one better and win the top division title in Osaka.