Mōkonami Sakae  Mōkonami Sakae (born 5 April 1984 as Ganbold Bazarsad) is a former sumo wrestler from Mongolia. After making his professional sumo debut in March 2001, he had his top "makuuchi" division debut 8 years later in July 2009. His highest rank was maegashira 6. He has acquired Japanese citizenship. In April 2011 he was ordered to retire by the Japan Sumo Association after an investigation found him guilty of match-fixing. Ganbold Bazarsad was born and raised in Ulan Bator. It has been reported that he lived in the same apartment complex as later "makuuchi" contemporary Shōtenrō, though they never met in person. During his school years, he was focused on basketball and only participated in Mongolian wrestling occasionally as recreation. But after seeing the well-known Mongolian sumo wrestler Kyokutenhō in action, he was inspired to try out sumo. He came to Japan in 2000 with an invitation to try out for Tatsunami stable through a connection with Kyokutenhō's contemporary Kyokushūzan, and entered sumo in March, 2001, the same tournament as the later Mongolian "yokozuna" Hakuhō. The ring name he took combined "Mōko" (, "fierce tiger", which is homophonous with the old Sino-Japanese name for Mongolia, ) with the "nami" of Tatsunami stable. There is a now a movement among Mongolians residing in Japan to discontinue using the country name "Mōko" as they consider the name derogatory. This was acknowledged by Mōkonami, but he continued using this "shikona" for the remainder of his career. Mōkonami had trouble gaining weight at first and struggled in the ranks of the "sandanme" fourth division. As his weight finally began to rise, however, his sumo improved, and he was promoted to the third division, "makushita" in January 2005. He proceeded to win a majority of bouts in 5 consecutive tournaments, and with a 5-2 record in his last "makushita" tournament, he finally became a "sekitori" by gaining promotion to "jūryō" in January 2006. Being a fan of the Hanshin Tigers, and recognizing that his coach is an old friend of the well-known Tiger player Katsuhito Yamada (as well as the fact that the second Chinese character in his ring name is "tiger") Mōkonami commemorated his "jūryō" debut with a new "keshō-mawashi", approved by the Tigers' owners, that closely resembled the Tigers' logo.