In 2022, Danylo Yavhusishyn escaped to Japan after his home country of Ukraine was invaded by Russia. Three years on and he is now a household name here after winning his first sumo championship on Sunday. Yavhusishyn, who goes by the ring name of Aonishiki, won the Emperor’s Cup at the Fukuoka Kokusai Center with a record of 12 wins and three losses. The tournament went to a playoff, with the Ukrainian facing off against Yokozuna Hoshoryu. It’s the fourth time they’ve fought, with Aonishiki winning each one. 

Going into the final day, Hoshoryu tied for the lead with Onosato, his fellow yokozuna, and Aonishiki. Onosato, however, was forced to withdraw from his bout with Hoshoryu due to a shoulder injury. That gave the Mongolian a walkover victory. It meant he would have secured his third top-division championship had Aonishiki failed to overcome Kotozakura. Fortunately for the crowd, an anticlimactic finish was avoided as the Ukrainian forced a playoff thanks to an impressive uchimuso. After a brief interval, he then defeated Hoshoryu with a rear throw down. 

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Possible Promotion to Ozeki After Tournament Triumph 

“This was my first playoff, so I just wanted to make sure I got it right and finish with no regret,” Aonishiki said after the win. “I’m always a little nervous, but I was able to focus on my style of sumo.” During his victory ceremony interview, Aonishiki was told that there will be an extraordinary meeting of the Japan Sumo Association’s board of directors on Wednesday to discuss his promotion to ozeki. If confirmed, it will make him the fastest to reach the second-highest rank. 

Aonishiki made history last month, becoming the fastest ever sumo wrestler to reach the third-highest rank of sekiwake after starting from the bottom of the sport’s six divisions. He achieved that in just 13 tournaments. Now, it looks certain that he’ll be elevated to ozeki for January’s New Year competition. There have been three European wrestlers to reach the rank of ozeki: Karoyan Ando (known professionally as Kotoshu Katsunori) from Bulgaria, Kaido Höövelson (Baruto Kaito) from Estonia and Levan Gorgadze (Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi) from Georgia.

Aiming To Become Europe’s First Yokozuna 

While Aonishiki is obviously delighted to have risen up the ranks so quickly in the sport, he feels this is just the beginning. “There’s one more rank above ozeki, and I’ll be doing my best to get there,” he said. Promotion to yokozuna requires either two consecutive tournament wins or what is considered an “equivalent performance,” such as winning one tournament, placing second in another, while also having maintained a consistently high record in the preceding three tournaments. There has never been a European yokozuna.

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Updated On November 25, 2025