Takanofuji Sanzo

Moving from the sumo ring to the cage is not the smooth pivot that headlines make it sound like. Sumo is decided in a few explosive seconds of pushing and gripping; mixed martial arts adds striking, grappling on the floor, and rounds that keep going long after a sumo bout would have ended. Takanofuji Sanzō — now competing as Tsuyoshi Sudario — was born in 1997 and rose to jūryō, the second-highest division, before leaving the sport. He and his twin brother Takagenji were the first twins ever to both reach that division, which is the kind of footnote that will outlive most careers. Then he walked away from the ladder he had already partly climbed and started at the bottom of a different one. Plenty of athletes talk about reinvention after their bodies force it on them. Choosing it while still young, with the ranking sheet in front of you, takes a harder sort of nerve, and that is the part of his story I keep coming back to.

Name (English)

Takanofuji Sanzo

Name (Japanese)

スダリオ剛

Reading

すだりお剛

Born

May 13, 1997 (age 29)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Taurus / Ox

Origin

Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

rikishi / mixed martial arts fighter

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/tsuyoshi__13/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takanofuji%20Sanz%C5%8D
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%80%E3%83%AA%E3%82%AA%E5%89%9B
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q38276186

Tags

• Tochigi Prefecture
• rikishi
• mixed martial arts fighter

Last updated

2026-08-07

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.