Madcap Colin Carroll is battling outrageous odds in his death-defying quest to add sumo glory to his other world title - in elephant polo.
Alarmingly under-sized in a sport of blood-curdling giants, Carroll had to sign a death waiver before entering the sumo world championships.
But the skinny Cork native, the first man from this country to take part in the tournament, tweaks the nose of fear.
'The Japanese weigh-in guys laughed at me,' Carroll told Reuters before tomorrow's tournament in Sakai. 'But the bigger they are the harder they fall.
'If you think anyone small can't make a difference in life then think of a mosquito in your bedroom. That's my sumo name - Green Fly. I'm the little mean green sumo machine.'
Carroll only squeaked into the championships because his 'mawashi' - or 'nappy' as he prefers to call it - carried him over the minimum 75kg weight limit.
'In true Irish fashion I came in at 74.9kg,' he laughed. 'You have to be 75 kilos to actually compete so thank God my sumo nappy weighed five kilos. I got in by nappy default.'
Carroll, comfortably the lightest wrestler in the amateur competition, barely flinched when tournament organisers pushed a death waiver under his nose.
'I had to sign something about (them having) no responsibility for injury of any kind,' the Irish braveheart winced. 'What does that mean?
'True to form misunderstanding has meant I might have signed my life away.'
Carroll caught the sumo bug by freakish chance after winning a surprise gold medal at the world elephant polo championships in Nepal last year.
'I was riding home in December last year through the Nepali jungle with my world elephant polo trophy under my arm looking at the arse of the elephant in front of me,' he smiled.
Carroll, who once suffered a broken back and still has steel screws supporting his spine, freely admits his family think he is raving mad.
"My father calls what I do my 'disagreeable pursuits' but I am in Ireland's only world champion team at the moment," he said, pointing to his exploits in the Nepali jungle.
'If to represent your country is disagreeable, well then the fathers of Ireland need to rethink their parenting.'
Already targeting the world record in the three-legged marathon in Dublin next year, Carroll is fiercely proud to be representing Ireland, despite accusations of craziness.
'What I'm doing is wearing my nappy with pride,' he said. 'I'm going to get into that ring, look down at my crotch and on my crotch is the Irish flag - and that is no joke.'
