Ready to Rumble: Combatants ready to battle in historic sumo wrestling tournament in Santa Cruz

SANTA CRUZ — A professional sumo wrestling tournament will make its historic, live-streamed debut in California on Saturday, and while the intricacies of Japan’s oldest sport might be foreign to most of the spectators expected to fill 2,500-seat Kaiser Permanente Arena, home of the NBA G League’s Santa Cruz Warriors, World Elite Sumo founder, CEO, and competitor Abdelrahman “Sandstorm” Shalan promises that the sport will not be lost in translation.

After all, the rules are pretty simple — take your opponent to the ground, or out of the dohyo (ring) to secure victory.

WES has made a few tweaks from traditional Japanese sumo, competitors will wear shorts under their mawashi, the thick silk or cotton loincloth worn during matches, but pretty much everything else remains the same, meaning there will be plenty of forearm shivers, slaps, and body slamming to get opponents off their game.

Shalan and colleague Mike Afromowitz have assembled an athletic and diverse group of plus-sized athletes to compete.

“With the techniques they’re using, the mixed martial arts background, pro wrestlers, jiujitsu, wrestling … it will be exciting for the audience in that it’ll be totally different backgrounds than sumo being used inside a sumo ring,” said Shalan, the first pro sumo wrestler from Africa and the Middle East.

Shalan’s expertise? “Slapping the (expletive) out of everyone,” he said, which triggered uncontrollable laughter from him. “You can slap. We have slap in sumo, as well. When I was in Japan, I was famous with slapping and (using) the elbow. You can hit on the face and hit on the chest.”

Expect more of the same when slap-happy Shalan steps inside the dohyo.

“This Saturday, we’ll have lots of elbows, lots of slaps. A lot of, I would say, family friendly violence,” Shalan said.

Welcome to combat sports.

The WES extravaganza will feature a four-woman tournament — the promotion’s first — as a warm-up for the main event, a 12-wrestler, open-weight men’s tournament. The women’s tournament will feature a round-robin format to help decide its finalists, and the men’s tournament will feature two groups, with the champions of each squaring off in the final. All matches will feature a best-of-three format to determine the winner.

As good as Shalan (6-foot-3, 350 pounds) is at slapping, he may have his hands — and face — full if he faces Makini “Big Mak” Manu (6-0, 400), who is not only a former amateur sumo champion, he’s Power Slap’s No. 1 ranked super heavyweight.

Manu knows he won’t be able to wind up and strike opponents like he does on Power Slap, but he plans to be a physical presence.

“I’m going to push the rule boundaries until they tell me to stop,” Manu said. “In my mind, I’m expecting to take first.”

Shalan is one of the more accomplished sumo in the competition. He secured back-to-back victories over grand champions (yokozuna) in Japan in 2014 while competing as Osunaarashi Kintaro for six years in the Ōtake stable.

Other tournament favorites include former Japanese sumo champion Asahisho Kota (5-9, 310), a who enjoyed a successful 16-year career in his homeland, and Japanese powerhouse Hidenoumi “The Iron Wall” Takuya (6-0, 350), who competed in pro sumo in Japan for nearly 14 years.

The field also includes Brazilian sumo star Rui Junior (5-11, 381), a multiple-time national and South American champion, and seasoned Russian technician Soslan “Big Bear” Gagloev (6-5, 350), who competed in Japan under the shikona “Wakanoho Toshinori” for 3 1/2 years.

Three-time African national freestyle wrestling champion Ahmed Khalil (6-3, 265) of Egypt; Polynesian American martial artist and pro wrestler Josh “Siua” Tuitupou (5-11, 270); Los Angeles’ Gilberto De La Torre (6-3, 400), the first-ever pro sumo wrestler of Mexican descent; pro wrestling star Juicy Finau (6-4, 465); American strongman competitor Josh “The Ox” Ortiz (5-7, 275), and San Jose mixed martial artist Paea “Bad News” Tukuafu (6-3, 290) round out the men’s field.

Tukuafu, a late replacement for injured Mathew Westwood (6-6, 600), has the least amount of sumo experience. But he’s got heart — he accepted a random invite to compete in the sumo event while MMA training at American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose and received an intense training session from Shalan on Tuesday at AKA.

Tukuafu figures he’ll give his survival skills a test in his pro debut.

“It makes way more exciting considering I never thought of doing something like this,” said Tukuafu, who grew up in Tonga and Hawaii, before his family moved to the South Bay. He graduated from Fremont High in Sunnyvale, where he competed in football and wrestling.

“To me, I’m taking it as like almost a football drill, in a way,” Tukuafu said, “trying to see who can push. And, if I can’t, maybe I’ll try some other tactic, like trying to get them off balance or something.”

Tukuafu knows he’s not only an underdog, but, for the first time in his fighting career, undersized.

“I’ve been munching man,” he said. “I think I made it to 300 (pounds) already.”

Shalan said size doesn’t always matter. Positioning, quickness, balance, strength, and leverage go a long way.

Shalan said winning the tournament isn’t his top goal. He has won enough in his career, he said, noting that his top priority is to grow the sport in the U.S.

“I want 12 champions,” he said, of the audience embracing the wrestlers.

WES is holding a fighter meet-and-greet in Abbott Square on Friday at 5 p.m., followed by an official weigh-in for the combatants at Woodstock’s Pizza Santa Cruz at 6 p.m.

Saturday, fans will get a glimpse into the cornerstone of traditional Japan’s culture.

In Japanese sumo, one-round matches are used to determine winners, not best-of-3, and tournaments last 15 days.

“We’re doing all the fun in a couple of hours, so the fans get it all, from the beginning to the end,” said Shalan, noting that taiko drummers will perform at the tournament. “We’re giving the culture shot, and the fun shot, and all the excitement shot in just two hours.”

Shalan hopes fans will experience sensory overload.

“That’s the target,” he said. “That’s how we build the fan base around the Bay Area right now.”

Where: Kaiser Permanente Arena, Santa Cruz

Tickets: Ticketmaster.com

Dohyō (土俵): The ring in which the sumo wrestlers hold their matches

Mawashi (廻し): The thick-waisted loincloth worn for sumo training and competition

Chonmage (丁髷): Traditional Japanese haircut with a topknot

Tachiai (立合い): The explosive, high-impact initial charge when the two wrestlers first collide to start the bout

Henka (変化): A sudden sidestep or dodge by a wrestler during the initial charge to trick their opponent

Harite (張り手): An open-handed slap to an opponent’s face or head