In his second tournament in July 2005 in the jonidan division he achieved a perfect record, but lost his second bout in a three-way playoff for the championship to the future Daidō.

Over the next five years, Ikioi managed to work his way slowly up the ranks until he was finally awarded promotion to the salaried jūryō division after a 5–2 record at makushita 3 in September 2011.

His September 2012 division effort at jūryō 1 was where he managed to turn things around, achieving an 11–4 record and a chance at the championship which he lost to Jōkōryū in a playoff.

[4] In November he produced his best performance in the top division, winning twelve matches and finishing in a three-way tie for second place.

He performed much better in March, posting a 10–5 record: only a loss to Kotoyuki on the final day prevented him from taking a fifth Fighting Spirit prize.

[7] He lost the rank after scoring only 4–11, but he earned a first kinboshi or gold star for a yokozuna upset in the July tournament in Nagoya, defeating Hakuhō on the ninth day.

[8] In November 2016 he faced Kagayaki, a match which saw two wrestlers with single-kanji fighting names meet in the top division for the first time since the introduction of the yūshō system in 1909.

[2] In March 2018 he finished with an 11–4 record, but a defeat on the final day meant he missed out on a share of the Fighting Spirit Prize.

In March 2019 he was suffering from cellulitis and a fever but did not pull out of the tournament, not wanting to disappoint the fans in his native Osaka Prefecture, and won just two bouts.

He returned to the top division in January 2020 following an 11–4 playoff defeat the previous November, but was once again demoted to jūryō after the July 2020 tournament.

Fighting from the rank of jūryō 12 in January 2021 he recorded only a 6–9 score, forfeiting his final match against Tsurugishō due to a hand injury, the first absence of his career.

[2] Ikioi announced his retirement from sumo in June 2021, on the day of the release of the banzuke for the July 2021 tournament where he had fallen to sandanme 21.

[13] Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique     Also shown: ★=Kinboshi; P=Playoff(s) Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi