2nd Annual SoCal Sumo Open

Join HONU SUMO Club and Maximum Effort Foundation on Saturday, February 24 starting at 9 a.m. for a day of sumo, music, food and meeting neighbors and making new friends.

The 2nd Annual SoCal Sumo Open is a FREE event that will be held at the City Heights Performance Annex at 3795 Fairmount Ave. on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Kumeyaay people (San Diego, CA).

In 2023, HONU SUMO Club & Maximum Effort Foundation held its first SoCal Sumo Open. JJ Jones, Co-Executive Director of Maximum Effort Foundation, was the first Black person in history to organize a sumo tournament in San Diego. Over 60 wrestlers competed in front of more than 200 spectators and fans. Join us as we make history again!

HONU Sumo Club and Maximum Effort Foundation dedicate each SoCal Sumo Open to San Diego’s Japanese community of the past, present and future. We honor the Japanese community across all timelines for continuing to share sumo, judo, kendo and other sports from Japan with our community and the world, for their resiliency and love as they still practiced sumo, even while being incarcerated, in internment camps and after being released, with threat of imprisonment due to racism, and for continuing to be in solidarity with oppressed people everywhere.

For more information about the 2nd Annual SoCal Sumo Open, if you are interested in practicing sumo or learning more about HONU SUMO Club and Maximum Effort Foundation, visit our instagram at @HonuSumo.