Koji Kitao

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双羽黒光司
Futahaguro Koji
Personal information

Birth name	Koji Kitao
Date of birth	August 12, 1963 (1963-08-12) (age 44)
Place of birth	Mie, Japan
Height	1.99 m (6 ft 6+¹⁄₂ in)
Weight	157 kg (350 lb/24.7 st)
Career*
Heya	Tatsunami
Record	348-184-24
Debut	March, 1979
Highest rank	Yokozuna (July, 1986)
Retired	December, 1987
Yusho	0 (Makuuchi) 1 (Juryo) 1 (Jonokuchi)
Special Prizes	Outstanding Performance (5) Technique (2)
Gold stars	3 (Kitanoumi, Chiyonofuji, Takanosato)
* Career information is correct as of March 2007.

Kōji Kitao (born August 12, 1963) is a former sumo wrestler and professional wrestler, born in Mie, Japan. He was sumo's 60th Yokozuna, and the only yokozuna in sumo history not to win a top division tournament championship.^[1]

1 Sumo career
2 Professional wrestling career
3 Sumo coaching role
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Sumo career

[edit] Early career

Born in Tsu, Kitao made his professional sumo debut in March 1979 at the age of 15, joining Tatsunami stable, and he reached the top, makuuchi division in September 1984 after winning the championship in the juryo division. In his second tournament in the top division he defeated yokozuna Kitanoumi and was awarded the Outstanding Performance prize and promotion to komusubi. He made his sekiwake debut in May 1985. In July 1985 he was back in the maegashira ranks but defeated two more yokozuna and was tournament runner-up with twelve wins. After finishing runner-up once more in November 1985 he was promoted to the second highest rank of ozeki. Kitao continued his rapid rise with his third runner-up performance in May 1986, followed by a 14-1 score in July, his only loss being to Hoshi. He defeated yokozuna Chiyonofuji on the final day to force a playoff with him, which Kitao lost.

[edit] Promotion

After this result the Sumo Association were faced with a difficult decision as there was only one yokozuna on the ranking lists, but five ozeki, with a sixth wrestler (Hoshi), winner of the March 1986 tournament, already performing to ozeki standard. Rather than have an unprecedented sixth ozeki, the Association decided to promote Kitao to yokozuna. He had won 36 bouts in the last three tournaments and been runner-up in the last two, so the defacto promotion standard of "two tournament championships or the equivalent" was interpreted rather loosely. He was just 23 years old and the first person to be promoted to yokozuna without any top division tournament titles since Terukuni in 1942.^[2] The Sumo Association insisted that Kitao could no longer compete under his family name at such an exalted rank so he adopted the shikona of Futahaguro, the name being formed from two highly successful former yokozuna from his stable, Futabayama and Haguroyama.^[2]

[edit] Yokozuna

The decision to promote Futahaguro backfired and he proved to be a great embarrassment to the sumo establishment. His debut as a yokozuna in the September 1986 tournament saw him pull out on the seventh day with only three wins, and after two runner-up scores in November 1986 and January 1987 a series of mediocre performances followed. His best result as a yokozuna came in November 1987 when he was runner-up for the seventh time, with a 13-2 record. However, controversy was never far away from him. Several junior members of his stable refused to serve under him following an incident on the 1987 winter tour,^[3] and as a result of this, in December 1987 he had a heated argument with his stable boss, Tatsunami, and stormed out, allegedly striking Tatsunami's wife on the way.^[2]The elders of the Sumo Association responded, without giving Futahaguro a hearing, by voting to accept his "resignation". Futahaguro became the first yokozuna ever to be expelled from sumo this way.^[2] He had lasted just eight tournaments at yokozuna rank and had proved unable to win a championship.

[edit] Top division record

Futahaguro Koji^[4]
	January Hatsu basho, Tokyo	March Haru basho, Osaka	May Natsu basho, Tokyo	July Nagoya basho, Nagoya	September Aki basho, Tokyo	November Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
1984	x	x	x	x	East Maegashira #8 8–7	West Maegashira #3 8–7 O★
1985	West Komusubi 10–5 T	East Komusubi 10–5 O	West Sekiwake 6–6–3	East Maegashira #1 12–3 OT★★	West Sekiwake 11–4 O	East Sekiwake 12–3 O
1986	East Ōzeki 10–5	West Ōzeki 10–5	East Ōzeki 12–3	East Ōzeki 14–1	West Yokozuna 3–4–8	West Yokozuna 12–3
1987	West Yokozuna 12–3	West Yokozuna 7–3–5	West Yokozuna 10–5	West Yokozuna 8–7	East Yokozuna 9–6	West Yokozuna 13–2
1988	East Yokozuna Retired 0–0–15	x	x	x	x	x
Record given as win-loss-absent Championship Retired Demoted from makuuchi Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique Also shown: ★=Kinboshi Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi Makuuchi ranks: Yokozuna — Ōzeki — Sekiwake — Komusubi — Maegashira

[edit] Professional wrestling career

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Upon being dismissed by the Sumo Association, Kitao was linked with a move to America's NFL, but instead turned to professional wrestling. To mollify the association, he dropped the shikona and reverted to his real name.

Trained at New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo, he debuted as a wrestler in 1990, and soon left the promotion to go to SWS. He teamed with fellow former sumo Genichiro Tenryu in an appearance at the World Wrestling Federation WrestleMania VII event. According to sources, during his match with Earthquake on April 1, 1991, Kitao broke kayfabe by no-selling Earthquake's attacks and shooting at him. After the match was ruled a no contest, he immediately grabbed a microphone and began telling the audience that wrestling is fake, as other Japanese wrestlers attempted to restrain him.^[5]

Kitao then wandered in martial arts, but in 1992 he returned to wrestling by challenging UWF International top star Nobuhiko Takada to a (worked) mixed martial arts match. Pre-match discussions over the outcome of the match led to an agreement being reached for a draw. Takada, however, saw an opportunity and double-crossed Kitao during the match, legitimately KO'ing him with a kick to the head. Takada had won, but the importance of the match was that Kitao was truly back into puroresu. Kitao would later make two more MMA appearances - these times not worked - a loss to Pedro Otavio at the first Universal Vale Tudo Fighting event, and at UFC 9, losing to Mark Hall on a referee's stoppage. At PRIDE 1, he defeated future WWE superstar Nathan Jones with an armlock.

In 1996, he had an appearance in the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie The Quest as the fighting representative of Japan.

In the following years he formed his own promotion called Kitao Pro Wrestling, later a stable of the WAR promotion under the name Bukō Dōjō. Among the wrestlers that came out of the dojo were Masaaki Mochizuki and Takashi Okamura, who later became business partners of Ultimo Dragon in his junior heavyweight ventures.

Kitao won his only title, the WAR 6-Man Tag Team Championship, with Mochizuki and WAR rookie Nobukazu Hirai in 1998, but retired from pro wrestling altogether later in the year.

[edit] Sumo coaching role

In the summer of 2003 he made a surprise return to the world of sumo when he was invited to oversee some practice sessions at his former Tatsunami stable,^[3] now under new management after the retirement of Kitao's old stablemaster in 1999.