 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.In contrast to his slow progress previously, Ikioi found unprecedented success in the "jūryō" second division.He had only one loss in the first thirteen days of his "jūryō" debut, and even though he lost his last two bouts he still managed to win the tournament.