Born as Dolgorsuren Dagvadorj on September 27, 1980 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Asashoryu is the first sumo wrestler (rikishi) from Mongolia to reach the rank of yokozuna, the highest sumo rank. After his debut in 1999, it took Asashoryu only 24 tournaments to win his first top division championship, the quickest achievement of this since the sport adopted its current format of six championships a year in 1958. He is also currently (as of 2007) the only active yokozuna and is considered one of the greatest sumo wrestlers in history.

Unlike his Hawaiian predecessors Akebono and Musashimaru, Asashoryu was relatively lightweight at 129 kg in 2001, he began bulking up to 131 kg in 2002, 140 kg by 2004, and is now about 148 kg (326 pounds), right on average. He has successfully relied on speed and technique to compete against his, often much heavier, opponents, though lately he has begun confronting those opponents head on with the intention of out-muscling them. His lightning speed has suffered somewhat with the extra weight though he is still a lot faster than most of his opponents. He famously dumped the 158 kg Kotomitsuki with a "lifting body slam" (tsuriotoshi), a feat of tremendous strength, normally accomplished on much smaller and weaker opponents.

On January 30, 2003 Asashoryu was granted the title of yokozuna, the highest rank in sumo. While his first championship as yokozuna ended in a disappointing 10-5 record, he has since won a total of eighteen tournaments. Combined with his two yusho as an Ozeki, he has twenty career championships. The highlights of his career to date include two consecutive perfect 15-0 tournament wins (zensho yusho) in January and March of 2004 with a streak of 35 unbeaten bouts in total. Nobody had attained zensho yusho since 1996; yet Asashoryu has gone on to add three more such titles since 2004, for an impressive career total of five. On November 27, 2004, Asashoryu became the first wrestler to win five tournaments in a year since Chiyonofuji achieved the feat 18 years ago, and won his ninth Emperor's Cup.

He continued to dominate Sumo in 2005, winning all six honbasho (sumo tournaments) and losing only six bouts all year (0-1-0-2-2-1). One of those rare losses came on September 11, 2005 at the start of the Aki Basho when he dropped his first Shonichi (Day 1) bout during his tenure as Yokozuna. On November 26, 2005 a visibly emotional Asashoryu wept after winning his eighty-third bout of the year (a new record) and clinching the tournament at the same time. The six victories of 2005 combined with his victory from the final tournament of 2004 has set a new record run of seven consecutive tournament victories, including two more 15-0 wins in January and May of 2005. The great Yokozuna Taih_ Koki achieved the feat of six consecutive tournament victories twice, but never in a calendar year. Asashoryu now stands alone with seven, cementing his place as one of the best ever. As of January 20th, 2007 Asashoryu has posted a 13-1 record, thus capturing his 20th career title, and fourth straight since returning from injury. Many believe he will go on to break the record of 32 tournament wins held by Taiho Koki.

Asashoryu has been criticized for infractions of the strict code of conduct expected of top sumo wrestlers. The most severe of his transgressions was his disqualification in the July tournament in 2003. He pulled on Kyokushuzan's mage (traditional Japanese top knot) during their bout on Day 5 of the tournament, resulting in an immediate hansoku-make, or disqualification. This caused a furor among Japanese fans, who already had a distaste for the foreign yokozuna. Some irate fans even called him a cheat ("hansoku") during the weeks and months following this act. His other divergences from the norm include being photographed in a suit (instead of a traditional Japanese costume), complaining to judges after losing a decision, and refusing to adopt Japanese citizenship. He has also been accused of breaking the mirror of a rival's car.

jozu!

Interesting sift, this one. I was going to comment that I noticed at least one grievous foul he made in this video, as well as a number of other grey area attacks. But props to the man, though. I've heard he's a wonder to watch, issues notwithstanding.

A simple hyperlink to the Wikipedia article would have sufficed, instead of a full cut/paste here.

Rembar, what is the "grievous foul" you believe you saw? Everything he did in these clips are totally in line with the rules of sumo and are acceptable. There are five judges aroiund the dohyo, in addition to the referee, to assure that no fouls are undetected. Had he performed a foul action, he would have been disqualfied and declared the particular bout's loser.

wow lifting -THAT- huge guy was incredible

Sumobaba, just because there are refs doesn't mean they see the foul, and even then they wouldn't necessarily call it. Anyways, I might be mistaken, but I believe I saw atemi-waza at some point, which I'm pretty sure is banned completely from competition, and if I recall recorrectly, he doesn't exactly have the cleanest record.

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