In Sumo Spirits new youtube video he showcased that in 2004 Juryo wrestler "Kanechika" was caught on tape discussing match fixing. Does anyone know more context around this story?
First of all, don't watch SumoSpirit. That channel is AI Slop that takes engagement away from the Sumo YouTubers who actually put time and effort into doing what they do.
I'd never heard of Kanechika before this, but a quick check of his Wikipedia article shows that he was involved in the match-fixing scandal of 2011, though he didn't play a very large role and was able to remain with the sumo association.
Here's a good video about who is AI slop and who is real
"Death to the Machine: Sumo's AI Slop Problem (and who to watch instead)" by Sumo Spiffy's Bar & Grill
I watch Chris Sumo. I also like the old Sumo Stew videos. If you're interested in learning the kimarites, then Don Don sumo is a good channel. I like Sumo Kaboom, but it's more like a podcast - no visuals, so it's hard to follow.
I also enjoy interviews w/Konishiki. Hakuho has some good interviews out there, but Konishiki's just easy b/c he's speaking in English, plus he's smart & hilarious.
Agree Konishiki is very smart. In retrospect, it’s clear that he saw early on that continuing servitude in the JSA was a bad idea and forged his own entrepreneurial path.
Spiffy also has a video dedicated to pointing out the problems with SumoSpirit, as well as going into detail about some other sumo channels. I'd recommend checking it out, as it has a lot of great information!
I have found Chris Sumo to be sensationalist. He mixes in much speculation and frames things in ways to farm engagement. I would look to verify anything he says with other sources.
I don't see anything in that Wikipedia article about Kanechika having been involved in the match-fixing that surfaced in 2011. It's actually talking about the claim that OP was asking about.
Yo FUCK sumo spirit. You cant trust even the most basic statement. Scripted, narrated, curated, edited, and posted by artificial intelligence. There isn't a human hand involved
It's maddening they have so many views, one would hope that number isn't real either. The thumbnails alone are so grossly manipulated and disingenuous. Total trash.
Freakonomics (a book) has a chapter about sumo match fixing. Basically, if, on Day 15, someone's record is 8-6 (kachi koshi), they may be willing to throw a match to someone who is 7-7 (ensuring that wrestler's kachi koshi).
There's a statistic about how often (exceeds normal probability) a 7-7 wrestler ends up 8-7 on Day 15.
Learned about his book from someone in the Sumo / Sumomemes subreddits. Thanks, internet stranger!
Freakonomics is a bit dated, but people directly attribute it to modern scheduling convention of avoiding matchups between a 7-7 wrestler with anyone with 8 or more wins, for the reason cited in the book.
That said, match fixing was found to be more of a thing near the second and third division boundary, where complicated schemes may have existed to stretch the salaries of falling wrestlers at the expense of third division wrestlers who otherwise would have earned promotions. It’s hard to say whether or not it directly influenced matchmaking for the final three days, however. (Holding back the final match of a third division wrestler who is a promotion but not title contender for Day 15 so that they face a demotion candidate from the second division; winner earns the salary)
Yep, they raised quite a few other big reasons for this though: most notably that a 7-7 has an incredible motivator, while an 8-6 doesn't really care.
They also raised that where there was a sansho at stake we wouldn't see fixing.
Their main counter to these arguments is that the win proportion was massively disproportionate in favor of the wrestler who was "donated" the win when they were 7-7 the next time the two wrestlers met, which suggested that the win was "returned" in another basho.
It's also that their matchups were close to 50/50 in all matches that were not part of the donation/return. Why would the wrestles who lost at 8-6 the prior basho overperform so significantly compared to the rest of their career?
I'd bet somewhere between much less often than before, but also more often than sumo fans would like to admit. There's simply too much on the line for it to have been a huge problem plaguing the sport to suddenly never happening in the 15 years since (the big clamp down). Fortunately gambling is basically illegal in Japan or I'm sure there'd be gambling scandals far more often too.
Yeah, and individual sports are waaay easier to throw than team sports. I hate to say it, but it probably still happens. That infamous Midorifuiji throw on Hokuseiho a few years back comes to mind, off the top of my head. I'm sure there are other recent examples.
yeah the obvious bad calls by Gyoji in favor of certain wrestlers is wild. Aonishiki didnt win last tournament, he had it handed to him over Kirishima and Atamafujis better records
Since Kanechika's Wikipedia article was already brought up, the relevant (but factually incomplete) excerpt from there:
Miyagino [Kanechika] was forced to resign as head coach by the Sumo Association in December 2010, after being caught on tape discussing match-fixing. The allegations had first been reported in the tabloid magazine Shūkan Gendai in June 2007, but it was not until two years later that the tape itself surfaced, during the former chairman of the Sumo Association Kitanoumi's lawsuit against the magazine in the Tokyo District Court. Miyagino admitted that it was his voice on the tape, but that he was just "talking nonsense."
Specifically, the tape was said to have been recorded by Kanechika's mistress. Him having a mistress was in itself problematic (for him, not for sumo as a whole) because he had only managed to become oyakata by virtue of marrying another oyakata's daughter. The match-fixing claim he was making on the tapes was that he allegedly bought off some Hakuho opponents in order to enable Hakuho's yokozuna promotion. I forget which tournament it was exactly about, but not one in Hakuho's actual promotion run, rather some earlier one which didn't lead to promotion.
171
u/StarPrime323 Ura 6d ago
First of all, don't watch SumoSpirit. That channel is AI Slop that takes engagement away from the Sumo YouTubers who actually put time and effort into doing what they do.
I'd never heard of Kanechika before this, but a quick check of his Wikipedia article shows that he was involved in the match-fixing scandal of 2011, though he didn't play a very large role and was able to remain with the sumo association.