Surprise package Ichinojo claimed his second ozeki scalp in as many days to keep alive his hopes of winning the Emperor's Cup on his debut in the top-flight makuuchi division at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament on Thursday.
The 10th-ranked maegashira broke up a stalemate and got his hands on the front of newly promoted ozeki Goeido's (6-6) belt and nonchalantly tossed him off the ring to stay within one win of front-running yokozuna and fellow Mongolian Hakuho.
Hakuho improved to 12-0 but rival yokozuna Kakuryu suffered an upset when he got muscled out by ozeki Kotoshogiku (8-4) to drop two wins back alongside rank-and-filer Okinoumi with three days of the tournament remaining at Ryogoku Kokugikan.