[10] According to his mother, he always liked to fight and wasn't afraid of pain, something she attributes to an ancestor on his father's side, who was a strongman and who fought alongside Nestor Makhno.
[11][12] After over a year living and training at Irumagawa stable, he finally decided to enroll in 2020, bringing the number of countries with at least one professional sumo wrestler to 24.
[15] During his first months of community life, he revealed that he was prone to homesickness and had difficulty overcoming the language barrier (speaking neither English nor Japanese), crying regularly.
[14] During the new recruits inspection, Wakafuji-oyakata (former maegashira Ōtsukasa), one of his coaches at Irumagawa stable, said he looked like a "mini-Baruto" because at the time of his apprentice examination he was 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) and weighted 162 kg (357 lb).
[19][12] On 26 January 2023, it was announced that Irumagawa-oyakata (former sekiwake Tochitsukasa), in anticipation of his mandatory retirement in April, would give control of his stable to coach Ikazuchi (former komusubi Kakizoe), without him inheriting the Irumagawa elder name.
[22] At the press conference to mark his promotion to the rank of jūryō, he expressed his reservations about the situation in his home country, but vowed to offer his parents, who remained in Ukraine, the material and financial assistance they needed from then on.
[6] At the time of his promotion, Shishi received his shimekomi from his former master (former sekiwake Tochitsukasa) and was presented with a keshō-mawashi by the supporters' association of Izumisano (Osaka Prefecture).
[23] The all-white and gold keshō-mawashi bears the inscription Kishin (鬼心), meaning 'demon's heart', at the request of master Ikazuchi to inspire his wrestler to fight with demonic fervor.
[23] On the thirteenth day of the July tournament, Shishi achieved a kachi-koshi record by defeating Tamashōhō, thus securing his presence in the jūryō division.
[26] Since makuuchi wrestlers who win their bouts are eligible for bonuses if their match was sponsored, Shishi mentioned to the press his intention to send the money to his family back in Ukraine.
[31][32] When his victory was certain, Shishi inspired Hiroyuki Sato (then in the NHK commentator's booth) with his own catchphrase of ureshishi (うれシシ), a pun on his ring name and ureshī (うれしい), meaning "to be happy".
To compensate for his level of Japanese, Shishi relies on his tsukebito (assistant) and stablemate, sandanme-ranked wrestler Saidaiji, with whom he converses when in doubt about the meaning of his sentence and who relays the answer to the journalists.
[34] The relationship between the assistant and his superior has also attracted the attention of observers, who are amused by this unprecedented situation, even dubbing Saidaiji the "Ippei Mizuhara of the kakukai", in reference to the translator to whom Shohei Ohtani owed a great deal during his interviews.