11/30/2005

Yahoo! News— Bulgarian sumo wrestler Kotooshu , whose real name is Kaloyan Mahlyanov, smiles as he speaks during a news conference at Sadogatake stable after the Japan Sumo Association approved promotion of him to ozeki in Fukuoka, Japan, November 30, 2005. Kotooshu became the first European to reach the sumo’s second-highest rank.

Japan now has a new European “Crown Prince” — a new alien sumo ozeki. The Bulgerian Kotooshu is the new “Beckham” of sumo since he is tall and lean (six foot eight) and his muscular body makes him sumo pinup boy.

As I mentioned before in the report,
The “Prince of Sumo” is Bulgarian, it seems like everybody who is important in sumo is foreign. The current sumo grand champion is a Mongolian Asashoryu has longest string of tournament wins in the history of the sport and foreigners make up over a quarter of the wrestlers in higher divisions of sumo: 7 Mongolians, 2 Russians, 1 South Korean, 1 Georgian, 1 Estonian and now 1 “Crown Prince” Bulgarian.