JUICY FINAU VS. MAKINI "BIG MAK" MANU PHOTO VIA WORLD ELITE SUMO
World Elite Sumo (Website) will bring a one-night, 12-man, open-weight tournament to the Caribe Royale (Website) on Saturday, November 21, with a Power Slap heavyweight, a former top-division Japanese wrestler, and a local MMA fighter among the competitors.
World Elite Sumo is a professional league that calls itself the first independent pro sumo league established outside Japan, and I have no way to verify that, so I’m just going to agree. The first three announced competitors are Hidenoumi “The Iron Wall” Takuya (Instagram), Makini “Big Mak” Manu (Instagram), and Orlando-based fighter Brennen Moorefield (Instagram).
Takuya, 34, of Fukushima, Japan, is the reigning World Elite Sumo tournament champion. He won the league’s September 26 tournament in Santa Cruz, California, defeating three straight opponents, including fellow sumo star Abdelrahman “Sandstorm” Shalan in the final. Takuya stands 6 feet and weighs 350 pounds, and he previously competed in the makuuchi, the top division of professional sumo in Japan.
Manu, 32, of Carson, California, is the number one-ranked super heavyweight in Dana White’s Power Slap league. A former professional football player, he made his sumo debut in Santa Cruz, where he beat Juicy Manu, a competitor listed at nearly 500 pounds, two rounds to zero. Manu is 6 feet tall and 400 pounds.
Moorefield, 31, was born and raised in Orlando and still lives there. He is 5 feet 10 inches and 230 pounds. The release says he was a high school football and wrestling standout who turned to Brazilian jiu-jitsu and then MMA, where he scored first-round knockouts in his first three fights. Moorefield trains at Fusion X-Cel Performance in Orlando. The release says he entered his first sumo tournament as a professional and defeated an opponent who outweighed him by 150 pounds. Side note: he’s super handsome.
All matches are best-of-three rounds. Events feature live taiko drumming, dramatic entrances, and a fight-night style production.
For full details, click HERE.
