Mōkonami
| Mōkonami Sakae | |
|---|---|
| 猛虎浪 栄 | |
 |
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| Personal information | |
| Born | Ganbold Bazarsad April 5, 1984 Ulan Bator, Mongolia |
| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) |
| Weight | 148 kg (326 lb; 23.3 st) |
| Career | |
| Stable | Tatsunami |
| Record | 341-304 |
| Debut | March 2001 |
| Highest rank | Maegashira #6 (September 2010) |
| Retired | April, 2011 |
| * Up to date as of Jan 2011. | |
Mōkonami Sakae (born 5 April 1984 as Ganbold Bazarsad) is a former sumo wrestler from Mongolia. After making his professional sumo debut in March 2001, he had his top makuuchi division debut 8 years later in July 2009. His highest rank was maegashira 6. He has acquired Japanese citizenship. In April 2011 he was ordered to retire by the Japan Sumo Association after an investigation found him guilty of match-fixing.
Ganbold Bazarsad was born and raised in Ulan Bator. It has been reported that he lived in the same apartment complex as later makuuchi contemporary Shōtenrō, though they never met in person. During his school years, he was focused on basketball and only participated in Mongolian wrestling occasionally as recreation. But after seeing the well-known Mongolian sumo wrestler Kyokutenhō in action, he was inspired to try out sumo. He came to Japan in 2000 with an invitation to try out for Tatsunami stable through a connection with Kyokutenhō's contemporary Kyokushūzan, and entered sumo in March, 2001, the same tournament as the later Mongolian yokozuna Hakuhō.
The ring name he took combined "Mōko" (, "fierce tiger", which is homophonous with the old Sino-Japanese name for Mongolia, ) with the "nami" of Tatsunami stable. There is a now a movement among Mongolians residing in Japan to discontinue using the country name Mōko as they consider the name derogatory. This was acknowledged by Mōkonami, but he continued using this shikona for the remainder of his career.
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