Sekiwake Hoshoryu maintained a share of the lead at the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament by outwrestling komusubi Daieisho in one of Friday's standout bouts.
Chasing his maiden top-level championship, the 23-year-old nephew of Mongolian great Asashoryu showed off his impressive strength and technique while improving to 5-1 on Day 6 at Fukuoka Kokusai Center.
Powerful pusher and thruster Daieisho (3-3) drove Hoshoryu right to the edge before the sekiwake danced back around to the inside and dispatched the one-time Emperor's Cup winner with an arm-bar throw.
Three rank-and-file wrestlers also sit atop the leaderboard — No. 9 Abi, No. 13 Oho and No. 1 Takayasu, who won his showdown against sekiwake Mitakeumi (4-2) by force out.
The loss to his fellow former ozeki left Mitakeumi six wins short of the double-digit victories needed to automatically return to sumo's second-highest rank following his disappointing 4-11 performance in September.
Both ozeki were victorious on the same day for just the second time at the 15-day meet, with Takakeisho (4-2) blowing away winless No. 3 Ura, and demotion-threatened kadoban ozeki Shodai (3-3) able to grind out a win over No. 3 Midorifuji (2-4).
Sekiwake Wakatakakage remained one victory off the pace at 4-2 after winning a bruising encounter against giant No. 2 Ichinojo (2-4) that left the ozeki aspirant bleeding heavily from his nose.
Kiribayama also improved to 4-2 with his win against fellow komusubi Tamawashi (1-5), who continued to struggle in his first meet since winning the Emperor's Cup in September.