History Characters / PunchOut

** When compared to the other games, he is still in the World Circuit but weaker than Super Macho Man. Needless to say, after this, he deserves his Championship.

* ArtisticLicenseSports: He both kicks and hits opponents with a walking stick in the middle of a boxing match. Needless to say, neither action would ever be allowed in any sort of respectable real-life league.

* {{Jerkass}}: He gives the most harm to the Referee if he wins in Title Defense — furiously chasing him around the ring and headbutting him into the air much like a real bull, leaving him dangling off the top rope. Additionally, he nonchalantly throws his obviously very heavy dumbbell into the audience before Rounds 2 and 3 in Contender. Needless to say, that would kill someone in real life!
* JerkJustifications: Well, if the paparazzi were constantly hounding you everywhere, even ''while you're bathing,'' you'd probably be angry all the time, too.

* ArtisticLicenseSports: Every boxer is guilty of this, but his ''Wii'' incarnation easily takes the cake by a wide margin. Most of his dirty tricks would earn any real-life boxer a long (if not permanent) ban from the sport, and he makes no effort to hide them. Bumbles [=McFumbles=] put together [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aKQj3nEIw a video]] counting the rules infractions committed by the Wii boxers. The second-highest is Great Tiger, with 8. Aran has ''19,'' later found out to be an even 20 in a follow-up video due to him smashing a camera that was WVBA property. The only boxer in the series who comes close to breaking as many rules as Aran does in ''Wii'' is Donkey Kong, who is a literal wild animal.

* OneHitKill: On the NES version, if you hit Joe after he steps back and taunts, there is a chance Joe will be knocked out.[[note]]This is a matter of timing. If Joe is hit in the first couple frames after becoming vulnerable, he'll be KO'd. Otherwise, he'll get up on a 1-count.[[/note]] Since Joe does nothing before said taunt, it's possible this blow will be the only one in the fight. This is carried over to the ''Wii'' version, where it's a signal for a one-hit knockdown opportunity. If you hit him with a Three-Star Punch when he returns from the taunt, [[InstantWinCondition Joe will eat mat]].

** Ironically enough, this is actually {{Averted}} in ''Super Punch-Out'', his game of origin, where Aran is instead TheGenericGuy and keeps it completely clean in the ring, in a massive contrast to him stuffing horseshoes in his gloves, smuggling in weapons, and ''physically assaulting the referee'' in ''Wii''.

* ArtisticLicenseSports: Every boxer is guilty of this, but his ''Wii'' incarnation easily takes the cake by a wide margin. Most of his dirty tricks would earn any real-life boxer a long (if not permanent) ban from the sport, and he makes no effort to hide them. Bumbles [=McFumbles=] put together [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aKQj3nEIw a video]] counting the rules infractions committed by the Wii boxers. The second-highest is Great Tiger, with 8. Aran has ''19,'' later found out to be an even 20 in a follow-up video due to him smashing a camera that was WVBA property. The only boxer in the series who comes close to breaking as many rules as Aran's Wii incarnation is Donkey Kong, who is a literal wild animal.

* ArtisticLicenseSports: Every boxer is guilty of this, but his ''Wii'' incarnation easily takes the cake by a wide margin. Most of his dirty tricks would earn any real-life boxer a long (if not permanent) ban from the sport, and he makes no effort to hide them. Bumbles [=McFumbles=] put together [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aKQj3nEIw a video]] counting the rules infractions committed by the Wii boxers. The second-highest is Great Tiger, with 8. Aran has ''19.''

* OneHitKill: On the NES version, if you hit Joe after he steps back and taunts, there is a chance Joe will be knocked out. Since Joe does nothing before said taunt, it's possible this blow will be the only one in the fight. This is carried over to the ''Wii'' version, where it's a signal for a one-hit knockdown opportunity. If you hit him with a Three-Star Punch when he returns from the taunt, [[InstantWinCondition Joe will eat mat]].

* ArtisticLicenseSports: Every boxer is guilty of this, but his ''Wii'' incarnation easily takes the cake by a wide margin. Most of his dirty tricks would earn any real-life boxer a long (if not permanent) ban from the sport, and he makes no effort to hide them.

* CombatSadomasochist: He's enjoying the whole "people getting punched in the face" thing ''way'' too much, and it doesn't seem to matter who's being hit. Land a hit on him? Deranged laughter. Take a hit from him? Gleefully vicious leering.

%%* HeroicBuild

* PreFinalBoss: Is set up to appear as the final boss in every game he's in, but only in the arcade version of ''Super Punch-Out'' and the Gold Edition of the NES game (Where Tyson/Mr. Dream is not present) does he get to properly play the role. On the Wii, he is the fourth opponent of the World Circuit... except the World Circuit happens to have five opponents. On both the NES and SNES, he is indeed the World Circuit champion, but in the retail version of the NES game, you fight one more boxer after him, and on the SNES, the World Circuit isn't even the final circuit.

* PreFinalBoss: Is set up to appear as the final boss in every game he's in, but only in the arcade version of ''Super Punch-Out'' does he get to properly play the role. In the Wii game, he is the fourth opponent of the World Circuit... except the World Circuit happens to have five opponents. In both the NES and SNES games, he is indeed the World Circuit champion, but on the NES, you fight one more boxer after him, and on the SNES, the World Circuit isn't even the final circuit.

* GratuitousJapanese: The English translation of the first game has one of his dialogs being made up of random Japanese words. This is averted in the ''Wii'' game; despite being a studio in an English-speaking part of the world (Next Level Games is located in British Columbia, Canada), dialog is spoken instead of written and only characters with English as their native language speak it, with boxers from non-English-speaking countries speaking the native language of their country. Not only does Piston Hondo speak real Japanese instead of random words; his seiyuu, Kenji Takahashi, is actually Japanese rather than an American or Canadian speaking surprisingly good Japanese.

* SickeningCrunch: Getting punched by Sandman in the ''Wii'' version will cause you to hear Little Mac's bones ''cracking''.

* SickeningCrunch: Getting punched by Sandman in the ''Wii'' version causes this sound, just to drive home how ''strong'' he is.

* ScaryBlackMan: The ''Wii'' version moreso, thanks to the voice acting. And he also ''leveled a building with his bare hands'' after Little Mac defeated him for the championship. That would make him scary even if he were white, red, yellow, or pink and blue with silver polka dots.

-->'''Mr. Sandman:''' "Hey Mac [[TermsOfEndangerment baby]]! Brush your teeth. It's bedtime...!"

* {{Bowdlerise}}: In the arcade, he was named "VodkaDrunkenski", but in the NES version, this was changed to "Soda Popinski" (and yet the references to him being drunk were left in somehow). The ''Wii'' version also uses "Soda Popinski", but it seems to actually be soda this time — the bottle is clearly plastic like a soft drink bottle (because it crumples instead of shattering when Soda crushes it, and also from the noise it makes as it falls when he's defeated), and the bubbles that appear during the match resemble soft drink fizz instead of the froth of some alcoholic drinks. He does still have some references to being drunk, however, as he at one point tells Little Mac (in Russian) that he will crush him, but the dialect in which he says it sounds like he intends to run over Mac with his car. Hilariously, getting drunk on soda actually made him even more memorable than if he had just been your standard drunk Russian.

* TookALevelInBadass: In Title Defense, his moveset is expanded to include RapidFireFisticuffs and a powerful uppercut combo after recovering from a knockdown. His vulnerability while bowing is also reduced.

* TookALevelInBadass: In Title Defense, his attacks hit faster and harder, and the timing for getting stars off of him becomes much stricter.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The color that the jewel in his turban flashes is the tell. It will blink yellow when you have an opportunity for a Star, red when you don't and he will do a jab, and in Title Defense, green or blue when he performs a left or right uppercut, respectively, and white in his earclap[[note]]Each jewel flash also has its own audio cue associated with it, so colorblind players can also figure out his tells[[/note]].

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The color that the jewel in his turban flashes is the tell. It will blink yellow when you have an opportunity for a Star, red when you don't and he will do a jab, and in Title Defense, green or blue when he performs a left or right uppercut, respectively, and white in his earclap.

* PeekABangs: In some parts of the ''Wii'' game, his bangs completely cover one of his eyes.

* JapanesePoliteness: One of the most polite, less ill-willed boxers in the series, and he hails from Japan. He even seems to have a bit of {{Keigo}} in his speech, given he refers to him as "sessha"[[note]]An archaic [[UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns pronoun]] used to refer to oneself in a humble way, reminiscent of a samurai[[/note]].

* MonsterClown: To the point where he even acts in-character as he fights:
-->''"Welcome! Now let's get this show on the road!"''\\
''"Huh? Don't you like my show?"''\\
''"Go home! The show is over."''

* FormulaBreakingEpisods: His World Circuit fight in the NES version. All of the surrounding final fights in the game are against [[LightningBruiser Lightning Bruisers]] who throw incredibly powerful and fast punches that are difficult to time and just getting hit a couple times will get Mac sent to the canvas. Don is a completely different fighter, a much smaller boxer with limited power who is more content to sap your stamina, pepper you down with uppercuts and jabs, and likely beat you in a decision if you don't fight smart enough to take him out in time alloted.