YAMA

Yama is a former professional sumo wrestler who fought from Onoe stable beginning in January 2007 at the age of 22 and at his peak weight of 586 lbs was the heaviest Japaneseborn sumo wrestler in history A graduate of Nihon University he won several amateur championships at national world and university levels before turning professional making the top makuuchi division by the January 2009 tournament He fought under the ring name Yamamotoyama formed simply by adding the suffix yama mountain to his birth family name Despite his meteoric rise through the ranks he struggled with injury after reaching his highest rank of maegashira 9 and fell to the secondhighest juryo division He returned to makuuchi for a single tournament but then suffered further injuries forcing his withdrawal from several tournaments and ultimately dropping down to the fourthhighest sandanme division In April of 2011 he was implicated in a widereaching boutfixing scandal Although he maintained his innocence of any putative boutfixing he accepted the punishments handed out by the Japan Sumo Association and retired from professional sumo Besides his forays into acting and reality TV he promotes the sport of sumo in the United States by staging training exercises and exhibition matches with other amateur sumo wrestlers