Yokozuna Hakuho said Tuesday he will take it one step at a time in next month's Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo as he seeks his third straight Emperor's Cup and an unprecedented 40th title overall.
"I will tackle it one bout at a time. People might think it's something easy for me, but winning a championship is a lot of hard work," the Mongolian yokozuna told reporters. "My goals right now are the 40th championship and getting 1,000 wins in makuuchi."
At the previous tourney in Nagoya in July, Hakuho captured a record 39th career title while surpassing the late former yokozuna Chiyonofuji and former ozeki Kaio to climb atop the all-time bout wins list with 1,050 career wins, 956 of them in sumo's elite makuuchi division.