Daishochi Kenta

Daishochi Kenta - 大翔地 健太 (born November 24, 1984 - February 28, 2020) was a Mongolian professional sumo wrestler from Ulaanbaatar. He made his debut in July 2001 and wrestled for Shibatayama stable. His highest rank was makushita 15 and he retired in September 2005.

## **Early Life**

He was born in Ulan-Bator, and took up Mongolian wrestling at the age of 9, but he preferred playing basketball. He won junior titles in wrestling, judo and sambo. He was recruited as a professional sumo wrestler by former yokozuna Onokuni who was on a visit to Mongolia.

## **Career**

He wrestled under the shikona "Daishochi" and rose through the bottom two divisions quite quickly. In his first professional tournament he took the jonokuchi yusho after winning a six-man playoff. He breezed through jonidan in two tournaments and was promoted to the sandanme division in March 2002. He wrestled in sandanme for around a year and a half and was promoted to makushita in September 2003. He gradually made his way up the makushita ranks and reached a career-best makushita 15 in March 2005.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

Shortly after reaching a career-best makushita 15, Daishochi announced his retirement from professional sumo at the age of 20 in September 2005, because he was tired of the lifestyle.

### **Amateur Sumo Career**

After retiring, he continued as an amateur and was a two-time winner of the Sumo World Championships in 2006 and 2007, and a gold medalist at the 2009 World Games and 2013 World Combat Games. He won the US Sumo Open Championship held in California for eight consecutive years, from 2007 to 2014. His overall record at the US Sumo Open was 110 wins and 7 losses.

### **Acting and Entertainment Career**

Upon quitting professional sumo, Byambajav moved to Los Angeles. Having limited English, he initially worked in menial jobs and manual labour. However, he was able to gain a role as a sumo wrestler in the film Ocean's Thirteen (2007), through the Californian Sumo Association. In 2010, he spent 1 week in the house of Gran Hermano 12 (Big Brother Spain).

In February 2013, he was featured on the American television show King of the Nerds. In April 2014, he appeared as the celebrity special guest on the CW comedy improv series Whose Line Is It Anyway?. In 2014 he was featured in One Direction's video for "Steal My Girl" alongside fellow sumo wrestler Yamamotoyama Ryuta. In May 2015, he appeared alongside Yamamotoyama in an episode of The Bachelorette. Byamba appeared in the April 16, 2015, episode of the TruTV series Impractical Jokers, titled "Pseudo-Sumo". The loser, Joe, was told he was going to be in a baby commercial, and was then surprised by Byamba. Byamba appeared again on Impractical Jokers, on August 16, 2018, in an episode titled "Bull Shiatsu", in which Joe lost again. This time Joe was dressed inside a home-made massage chair, manually massages people at a mall. The punishment didn't end until he massages his former adversary, Byamba. In 2016, he appeared as a figure skating sumo wrestler in a television advertisement for GEICO. In 2017 he promoted a new variety of mandarin orange called the "Sumo Citrus" in Lindsay, California. He featured as a model for the Subaru car company.

### **Death**

Byamba died in a Los Angeles hospital on February 28, 2020, after a protracted illness. He was married, with one child.

## **Fighting Style**

Daishochi was a yotsu-sumo wrestler who prefers grappling to pushing and thrusting techniques. He won over half of his bouts with a straightforward yorikiri, or force out. He was also fond of employing yoritaoshi, or frontal crush out, and uwatenage (overarm throw).

## **Record**

### **Divison Results**

* **Total:** 95-66-14/161 (26 basho)
* **Makushita:** 35-35-14/70 (12 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 43-27/70 (10 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 11-3/14 (2 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 6-1/7 (1 basho)

### **Championships**

* 1 **Jonokuchi** Championship (September 2001)

## **Gallery**

Daishochi (right) converses with Ama and Daiyubu (c. 2001)Daishochi celebrates winning the jonokuchi yusho (c. 2001)Daishochi prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2005)Byamba's viral slam to Kelly Gneiting (c. 2013)Byamba lifts up former sekitori, WakanohoByamba battles former sekitori YamamotoyamaByamba's Tegata and other merchandise

## **Sources**

* Daishochi Kenta Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Daishochi Kenta English Wikipedia Article
* Daishochi Kenta Rikishi Information