Two sumo wrestlers have come to the defence of fellow Mongolian Harumafuji, who has recently been accused of hitting a fellow wrestler over the head with a beer bottle.

Japanese media reported that grand champion Harumafuji hit another Mongolian wrestler, Takanoiwa, over the head with a bottle at a party last month, fracturing his skull and causing other injuries.

According to local Japanese media reports, Harumafuji got irritated by Takanoiwa checking his smartphone while they were talking.

But grand champion Hakuho, who was at the party, had a different version of events.

Harumafuji ‘didn’t hit him with a beer bottle,’ Hakuho said Thursday at the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament in Fukuoka. ‘It is also not true that he sat astride him (Takanoiwa).’

Former grand champion Asashoryu, also of Mongolia, was critical of the reporting.

‘The mass media only criticizes Harumafuji,’ Asashoryu said via Twitter. ‘I don’t think that’s right.’

In 2010, then-yokozuna Asashoryu, also from Mongolia, retired from the sport after allegations he had attacked a man outside a Tokyo nightclub during a tournament.

The news on Harumafuji has dominated Japanese television talk shows and evening newspapers this week as the nation expressed shock at claims against a yokozuna, or grand champion, whose behaviour in sports and society is expected to be exemplary.