Originally posted by cdtmI have never seen a manga author write 1200 chapters only to do stuff like this to his title character. I just pretend that the manga ended after Ippo beat Karasawa and that everything afterwards is some meth induced nightmare.
http://hni-scantrad.com/eng/lel/?manga=Hajime+no+Ippo&chapter=Chapter+1222#page=17Why does Mori hate Ippo?
He was on his way to following in Rikishi's footsteps.
That's Joe's first rival in Ashita No Joe, who dropped three weight classes to settle the score at Bantamweight (Beneath Featherweight, which itself required insane weight management.). He was eating a single tomatoe a day, locking himself in a room to keep drinking water, and reduced himself to a skeleton.
Spoiler:
He won the feud. Then he died.
Re-reading key moments in Ippo now.
The Vorg vs Mike Elliot is so good. It's like an entire side series condensed into a few chapters.
The way Elliot lost is somewhat ironic, as they established he lost the Olympic Gold to a brawler, and preferred Vorg's cerebral style.... and it was Vorg in feral mode who managed to overcome him.
Mashiba vs Sawamura:
I used to consider this a "everyone gets what they want" match. Mashiba kicks his ass, he gets the title, the crowd gets a bloodbath.
And I still think it kind of is, but I'm pretty sure Mashiba wouldn't be happy if he knew how Sawamura felt about the "beating". The thing is, he's a true sociopath... Mashiba, he pretends to be stone cold, but he cares way too much about things like looking bad, losing a match, or losing a fight.
Sawamura, he loses or gets hospitalized, and he doesn't think twice about it. He won't be kept up nights thinking "Dammit, Ippo beat me!" He simply does.not.care.
So in that sense, Mashiba lost everything. His title, his ranking, and his beat down was wasted on a guy who won't "learn his lesson".
"Word of god" says Takamura is more skilled then Ricardo.
Logic says Takamura has struggled, while Martinez has not. If Date is his strongest opponent ever, then he hasn't struggled once in his entire career.
Yeah, there's weight management, and Takamura clowns around more then Martinez, but still.. David Eagle. You can't blame that all on weight problems.
Ricardo has no David Eagle.
Originally posted by cdtmHart to say but weight adds a much different dynamic to boxing. Takamura is on a much more difficult road than Martinez
"Word of god" says Takamura is more skilled then Ricardo.Logic says Takamura has struggled, while Martinez has not. If Date is his strongest opponent ever, then he hasn't struggled once in his entire career.
Yeah, there's weight management, and Takamura clowns around more then Martinez, but still.. David Eagle. You can't blame that all on weight problems.
Ricardo has no David Eagle.
Originally posted by cdtmTakamura is a 200+ pound man starving himself to fight 155 pound guys.
"Word of god" says Takamura is more skilled then Ricardo.Logic says Takamura has struggled, while Martinez has not. If Date is his strongest opponent ever, then he hasn't struggled once in his entire career.
Yeah, there's weight management, and Takamura clowns around more then Martinez, but still.. David Eagle. You can't blame that all on weight problems.
Ricardo has no David Eagle.
Ricardo, from what we can tell, is naturally a featherweight.
It isn't really comparable.
And technically, word of God is that Takamura is the best boxer pound for pound in the series, not necessarily that he has the most technical skill. In terms of mastery of the finer points of boxing no one is on Eagle's level.
All true, technically.
Narratively, guys like Rikishi are said to lose a lot of stamina/strength/whatever, but they're still dominant over their competition/rival.
Can you see Ricardo near starving himself to drop to Joe's bantamweight division (The same as Featherweight Rikishi) and having any trouble at all with end of series Joe?
I mean, once Takamura gets to middleweight class, will he struggle?
If he got to fight in heavyweight, his natural class, in some other country, will he struggle?
So far, Ricardo's really the only boxer who's near literally sleepwalked through his career.
Kamogawa claimed Vorg could outbox Date.
This is well before his world push.
I'm not so sure.. Looking at how much Sendou pushed Vorg (The ref may have been biased, but Sendou certainly had a good performance), and comparing it to how Date destroyed a Miyata who claimed he was in his best health, without suffering from weight management..
I think Date > Vorg, personally.
I'd also rate Date at his peak well above Vorg at any time prior to his American challenge. Technically speaken Vorg was unprepared to fight Elliot and had a terrible start at his title fight but caught up greatly, we can only really guess how good he'll be at the top of his game. Elliot is no Martinez though.