Kisenosato's bid for promotion to yokozuna at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament is now hanging by a thread after the ozeki suffered his second defeat on Tuesday.
The Tagonoura stable wrestler slumped to 1-2 at the 15-day tourney, falling to second-ranked maegashira Tochinoshin (1-2) and miserably failing to capitalize on the absence of the winningest yokozuna of all-time, Hakuho, at Ryogoku Kokugikan.
Kisenosato, who needs to win the title here and cannot afford to lose another bout if he is to climb to sumo's highest rank, tried to blitz Tochinoshin at the tachiai but was sidestepped by his Georgian opponent. He quickly found himself teetering on the ropes.
Kisenosato tried to claw his way back, but it was too little too late as Tochinoshin gave him the final push to pick up his first win of the basho.
Tochinoshin, who has a 7-16 record against Kisenosato, felt he was fortunate to have caught the ozeki off guard as the gates swung open.
"I didn't have my mind made up at all," Tochinoshin said of his tachiai tactics. "I decided once I stepped onto the dohyo. I wanted to avoid a bad start at all costs."
"Things unfolded my way, and I just happened to be on the winning end today."
Kisenosato was not the only big name to fall on the third day of action, with yokozuna Harumafuji losing his first match of the tournament, by yoritaoshi to No. 1 maegashira Okinoumi, who is off to a 3-0 start.
Harumafuji attempted to throw his man down by the belt, but Okinoumi held firm and countered by using the yokozuna's momentum to collapse on the Mongolian yokozuna and score the upset.
The other yokozuna at the meet, Kakuryu, barely avoided a third consecutive loss after winning a slapfest against top-ranked Yoshikaze (1-2).