The stablemasters who run sumo wrestling in Japan took one look at the skinny kid from Mongolia and laughed. At a shade over nine stone, there was no way this 15-year-old runt was ever going to make it in a land of giants who regularly tip the scales around 35 stone.

His bags were packed ready to return home before the Miyagino stablemaster decided to take a chance on him on account of his father being an Olympic medallist in wrestling. That was 19 years ago. Last weekend, that skinny kid, now weighing 25 stone, won the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament winning all 15 of his bouts.

Mönkhbatyn Davaajargal, now known by his “shikona” name, Hakuho Sho, is to sumo wrestling what Roger Federer is to tennis or Michael Phelps was to swimming. Perhaps a closer parallel would be with American football quarterback Tom Brady, who like Hakuho, was passed over by team after team before being selected with the 199th pick of the 2000 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots and subsequently established himself as the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time).

Unlike the interminable Messi v Ronaldo saga, there is no debate that Hakuho is the greatest, even in a discipline with a near 2000-year history. His numbers see to that. The Spring Grand Sumo tournament was his 42nd championship victory and the 15th time that he did not suffer a single defeat, both records. So, too, his 1120 career wins. And his 832 wins as a yokozuna, the highest rank in sumo which he reached in 2007. The only record that he does not own is that for most consecutive wins, having fallen six bouts short of 69-win streak set 80 odd years ago.