The 25th annual competition had the biggest attendance ever, with over 4,500 fans in the stadium! Athletes from 9 countries fought in 126 back-to-back bouts, with lots of drama and close calls.
Foreigners dominated, as usual, in all the men’s categories, but an American lady went undefeated.
After getting bronze last year, Mendee came back to re-claim gold for the 3rd time in 4 years!
THE RETURN OF MENDEE
After going undefeated in 2022 (14-0) and 2023 (13-0), Mendee’s win streak ended at 30 wins in a row in 2023, where he ended up with a bronze medal. After suffering a severe leg injury just 3 weeks before competition, things looked grim, but even without any real preparation, Mendee limped into the ring, fighting 8 matches in the heavyweight division, where he went undefeated to win gold again!
In the final heavyweight match, he faced Georgian giant, Zura, who pummeled Mendee’s head repeatedly, with powerful blows. Mendee fell, but the judges called for a conference, to review. It was determined that Zura had broken international sumo rules, with heavy-handed blows, especially smashing the side of the head, but rather than calling for automatic disqualification, the judges gave Zura a warning, and allowed a re-match. Here, Mendee excelled, getting his favored inside position, and making quick work of the theretofore undefeated Georgian.
SOVIET BLOC
All 7 of the men from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Azerbaijan won medals, and aside from Mendee’s heavyweight gold, they won the other 4 gold medals. In fact, counting the openweight division (where anyone could take part), these 7 men won a total of 9 medals!
Not far behind was Uzbekistan, whose lone male athlete, Makhmud, led his side of the bracket in the prelims, but he ended up with 4th place in the lightweight field, although he did win the “ICHINOJO PRIZE”, being selected by the former Pro Sumo sekiwake himself, thanks to Makhmud’s bravery and technique against much bigger opponents. Durdona, the Uzbekistan female athletes, got silver medals in two weight categories.
WOMEN POWER
A small female contingent competed, but ALL of them had medals from the World Championships, including Tuvshinjargal from Mongolia (gold), Kellyann from USA (silver), and Durdona from Uzbekistan (bronze). Kellyann came out on top, with a perfect record, capturing gold in both heavyweight and openweight classes!
MEN’S MEDALS
ALL of the 15 men’s medals went to the minority of foreigners, except in the Light Heavyweight division. In that class, only one foreigner (Saba from Georgia) competed, and he won gold, undefeated. So, two Americans, Michael and James, did manage to medal in that division.
WHAT’S 480 POUNDS BETWEEN FRIENDS?
One of the most dramatic matches was in the openweight division, where Mathew (617 pounds) faced off against Xenan (137 lbs). The 480-pound weight differential did count for something, apparently, as Xenan lost quickly to a man OVER 4.5 times his weight!
DRAMA and TRAUMA
Here were a LOT of close calls, leading to many more officials’ conferences than usual. In many cases, these conferences led to re-matches, where it was too close to call a winner. The fans loved these!
Here were also more injuries than usual. This may be partially due to a lack of training, or lack of stretching and warming up. Just like in any sport, this is a reminder for athletes to prepare properly, in advance, and on the day of the competition.
ICHINOJO
For the second year in a row, the legendary “sekiwake” Ichinojo, who was ranked in the top 1% of ALL Pro Sumo wrestlers in Japan, was special guests, and also serving as Head Judge.
REMEMBERING BYAMBA
The most prolific competitor in this event, over 25 years, was 4-time World Sumo Champion Byamba, who competed in 13 US Sumo Opens, with a cumulative record of 110 wins and only 7 losses, leading to 10 Heavyweight Gold medals and 7 Openweight Gold medals, statistics that will probably never be matched. Although Byamba passed away in 2020, his success in the US Sumo Opens from 2007 – 2019 inspired a whole generation of new talent.
During this quarter-century milestone of the event, we remembered Byamba and played his videos, and we were all delighted to meet Byamba’s widow and son, who flew to L.A. for the competition. Byamba’s son, Benjamin, even got a chance to push against Ichinojo!
THANK YOU, ALL
After 25 years of US Sumo Open competition, we want to express our gratitude to the 1,000+ athletes, to 50,000+ fans, and to all the officials, staff, media, sponsors, and supporters, who have helped with sumo’s growth.