Sentoryu Henri

Sentoryu Henri - 戦闘竜 扁利 (born July 16, 1969) is a former American professional sumo wrestler from St. Louis, Missouri. He made his debut in July 1988 and last wrestled for Tomozuna stable. He reached the makuuchi division in July 2000. His highest rank was maegashira 12 and he retired in November 2003.

## **Early Life**

He was born in Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan, the son of a Japanese mother and African-American father. He was born on the same day that the Apollo 11 lunar mission left Earth and his middle name was given to him by his father in honor of Neil Armstrong. He lived on Yokota Air Base until the age of six, when he moved with his family to St Louis, Missouri. He grew up in Ferguson. His dream of becoming a professional football player was ended by a knee injury in his senior year of high school, but he had also been wrestling since elementary school and he had qualified for the state championships. After graduating in 1987 he returned to Japan to try professional sumo.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

He joined the Tomozuna stable of wrestlers, also the home of future ozeki Kaio. He was given the shikona of Sentoryu, meaning "fighting war dragon" but also a play on words for his hometown of St. Louis. He was relatively small at 174 cm and 94 kg when he made his debut in July 1988. He won the yusho or tournament championship in his first official tournament in the jonokuchi division in September 1988, defeating a fellow American, Shinnishiki from Los Angeles. In 1991 he reached makushita for the first time but injury problems meant he did not establish himself in the division until 1993. After a strong performance in September 1994 he was promoted to juryo in November 1994.

### **Juryo Career**

Sentoryu posted a solid 9-6 record in his debut, but followed it with a poor 6-9 record. As a result he was demoted back to makushita after only two tournaments as a sekitori.

It took Sentoryu more than four years of hard toil in the unsalaried makushita division (including a change of name to Kaishinzan in 1997) before he could win promotion back to the second division in July 1999, after an unbeaten 7-0 yusho in May. His final day victory over the former amateur champion Kototamiya (the future ozeki Kotomitsuki) was regarded as one of the high points of his career.

After reverting to the name Sentoryu, a strong 13-2 record in March 2000 sent him to the top of the juryo division. With an 8-7 mark in May 2000, he finally achieved his goal of promotion to the top makuuchi division in July. It had taken him 72 tournaments from his professional debut to reach makuuchi, which is the slowest amongst foreign-born wrestlers.

### **Makuuchi Career**

Sentoryu came through with a winning record of 8-7 in his debut but was then demoted after only recording a 5-10 score in September 2000. He had to withdraw from the following tournament in November and missed the January 2001 basho. Nevertheless, he managed to hold his own in jūryō and had one more visit to the top division in January 2002.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

He suffered a serious injury and was unable to compete in the March and May 2002 tournaments, falling all the way back to makushita. He refused to give up and fought his way back to sekitori status in September 2003, becoming the fifth oldest wrestler to return to juryo in the postwar era at 34 years, 1 month. However, another injury convinced him to retire at the end of the year, in the same tournament as Musashimaru.

### **MMA and Kickboxing Career**

Since his retirement from sumo, Sentoryu tried his luck at mixed martial arts. He was recommended for PRIDE in April 2004 by Chiyotaikai Ryūji, who saw Akebono Taro make such transition a year before.

He has six wins and sixteen losses in his 23 fights to date. He styles himself Henry "Sentoryu" Miller. He made an agreement with World Victory Road and fought Yoshihiro Nakao. On 25 December 2010 he faced Yoichi Babaguchi (former sekiwake Wakashoyo) in the first ever K-1 kickboxing match between former sekitori. There was an edge to the match because Miller blamed Babaguchi for an injury he sustained in a sumo bout between the two in November 1994 (his debut juryo tournament). Miller won the match in the first round.

His last MMA match was on August 25th, 2013, where lost to Kazuhiro Nakamura.

### **Post MMA**

After MMA, he became the product manager of his wife’s family jewelry business and he makes frequent trips between Japan and Thailand.

## **Fighting Style**

Sentoryu favored pushing and thrusting techniques, winning most of his matches by oshidashi (push out), hatakikomi (slap down) or hikiotoshi (pull down).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 402-303-99/702 (93 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 19-26/45 (3 basho)
* **Juryo:** 113-105-37/217 (17 basho)
* **Makushita:** 175-123-31/296 (47 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 54-30-21/84 (15 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 35-18-10/53 (9 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 6-1/7 (1 basho)

### **Championships**

* 1 **Makushita** Championship (May 1999)
* 1 **Jonokuchi** Championship (September 1988)

## **Shikona History**

* Sentoryu Henri (1988.07 - 1997.05)
* Kaishinzan Henri (1997.07 - 1999.05)
* Sentoryu Henri (1999.07 - 2003.11)

## **Gallery**

### **JSA Profile Pictures and Tegata**

Sentoryu Henri - 1999 (Retrieved from the JSA)Sentoryu's tegata
### **Career Overview**

Sentoryu gets recruited into Tomozuna stable (c. 1988)Sentoryu after promotion to Juryo (c. 1994)Sentoryu's Juryo promotion party (c. 1994)Sentoryu in Juryo (c. 1994)Sentoryu falls to the unsalaried ranksSentoryu earns promotion in over 5 years after makushita yusho (c. 1999)Sentoryu serves as Ozeki Kaio's flag bearer (c. 2000)Sentoryu after promotion to Makuuchi (c. 2000)Sentoryu during the makuuchi dohyo-iri (c. 2000)Sentoryu and Yokozuna MusashimaruSentoryu during the dohyo-iriSentoryu falls to the unsalaried ranks (c. 2003)Sentoryu after wrestling his final match (c. 2003)Sentoryu announces his retirement (c. 2003)Sentoryu's retirement ceremony (c. 2004)Sentoryu knocks out Wakashoyo (c. 2010)

## **Sources**

* Sentoryu Henri Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Sentoryu Henri Rikishi Information