The world of amateur sumo wrestling lost a great representative this past weekend.  Ulambayaryn Byambajav, or Byamba as he was affectionately known as, passed away at the age of 35.  The SumoByamba.com website has more information about Byamba and his contributions to the sumo community.  He is most remembered as a TV and Movie star, but he was very talented inside the ring as well.  R.I.P. Byamba

One of the exciting things about moving back to the US this year is I will be able to now attend the annual US Sumo Open which will be in my "backyard" down in Long Beach.  On Saturday, 23 March was the 19th Annual Sumo Open with wrestlers competing from all over the world.  This is the largest sumo tournament outside of Japan and the heavy favorite this year was Byamba, but age is finally catching up to him and he did not place in the top three medal finishes!  These types of tournaments open up the sport to amateurs, youth, and women in a successful attempt to expose the world to the sport.  Congrats to Oielsandr Veresiuk (Ukraine), Jose Galindo (USA), and Hiroki Sumi (Japan) for taking home the Men's Heavyweight Gold, Silver, and Bronze respectively.  Congrats as well to Svitlana Kolenyk (Ukraine), Julia Dorny (Germany), and Marine Holmeide (Norway) for taking home the Women's Middleweight Gold, Silver, and Bronze respectively.

Byamba entered the world of professional Japanese sumo with the rush of other Mongolian wrestlers in the early 2000s.  One of the greatest rikishi of all time is the Mongolian Yokozuna Hakuho who has sat on the top of the sumo world for the better part of a decade now.  Byamba (His shikona was Daishochi when he was in the Nihon Sumo Association) seemed destined for similar success, but was sidelined by an injury right before he broke into the top ranks and retired soon after.  After he retired from professional sumo, he turned to amateur status and won two Sumo World Championships in the heavyweight class as well as Gold in the 2009 World Games.  In 2013, Topps captured Byamba in their Allen and Ginter's "The World's Champions" set.  From what I gather there at ~10 different types of cards of Byamba in this set:




Regular
Regular Red Back #/25
Mini
Mini Wood #1/1
Mini Relic
Mini Auto
Mini Auto Red Ink #/10
Black, Cyan, Magenta Printing Plates

Good stuff.  I am hoping to slowly add more of these to my collection over the years.