Say It Ain’t So, Sumo

This week’s big story in sports is the sumo wrestling scandal. It’s heavy: sumo wrestlers weigh in at over 300 pounds. The scandal: athletes have been fixing matches for Yakuza gangsters in return for cash payoffs. The repercussions: the grand tournament of Japan’s national sport has been cancelled for the first time since World War II.

Some sumo wrestlers have fixed matches by texting on their cell phones. The fingers of these huge pro athletes are so fat that some use iPads as cell phones.

In other sports news, three Pakistani cricket players have been banned from world play for cheating, and there is some kind of indoor football match in Texas.

Bonus: The Sumo Success Diet.

“Secrets of the sumo wrestler’s diet,” Monami Yui, CNN City Pulse

It’s really not much of a secret. Eat lots of this with big hunks of meat.

Want to know how you’d look as a sumo wrestler? There’s an app for that.

 

Image (“Say It Ain’t So, Sumo, after Utagawa Kuniyoshi”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Tags: betting, bout-fixing, bribery, cheating, fixed fights, fraud, gambling, graft, illegal betting, Japan, match-fixing, scandal, sports, Sumo, sumo wrestlers, swindle, wrestling, Yakuza