Keith switching up to southpaw is classic Morikawa. Fun bit. In my sparring experience I do that when I'm either out of ideas (the case here) or when I just want to provide a different look. The whole talk about the "demon left" was a great way to revitalize the fight a bit after Takamura proved beyond the shadow of a doubt he can win the fight literally one-legged because he's just that good. I imagine the stance switch is Dragon's last gamble, so now it is the home stretch. Give it a couple of rounds more before Takamura puts him put, tops.
I'm imagining Takamura was hit, but the ambiguous nature of the last panel is hinting something. Maybe he rolled with the punch.
Also PMC: I'm fairly certain Dragon did the Ground Cannon and Heaven Cannon in the very first round. Ground Cannon was a uppercut. Heaven Cannon I'm not too certain of but I think it was a bolo punch.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."New chapter: Yeah, not so much "a couple of rounds" as "this is literally the final exchange of the fight". Takamura's counter looked like the sun blasting off Dragon's face, amazing. And just like that it's over, Dragon goes down praying.
Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jul 14th 2021 at 12:04:30 PM
Well, that's that, exactly as I said with the "oh it was all skill in the end" conclusion for Dragon. Takamura being god and tanking stuff with his hair aside (I'm used to it by now), it was INCREDIBLY rushed to end it like that when Dragon seemed to just be hitting his stride with the stance switch and the reveal of his past.
Overall, I thought this was a great build-up and a a dud of a match in the end. Just extremely rushed and unsatisfying in the end.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."New chapter -
Celebration! At the end Takamura pretty much goes "God helps those who help themselves" aka you need to bust your ass to get things done. More foreshadowing a return to the ring for Ippo that I would like to see before I have grandkids. Yamaguchi…gets some Ship Tease with Takamura. No, really. Ippo dreams of having the love of a woman greet him after a harsh battle, sadly, he has Kumi. The two somehow get intertwined while sleeping and wonder what the hell, but the victory was no dream.
Kumi does not strike me as excited here, she looks worried and concerned. I know your hate-boner for her is strong, but don't misread the panels out of spite. I really enjoyed King of Games Yami having one final game with Keith. Aoki being a savant in everything except boxing continues, as he's also improbably good at mitt-holding. All in all, a good wind-down chapter.
My hatred for the Adri-Kumi did distract not only from Yagi being awesome at stuff that isn’t boxing, but also the idea that Aoki is clearly showing talent in stuff not in the ring, which given his own career is that of a perennial journeyman, might hint at him having to reconcile that his own career is winding down. He has a girl that loves him, he clearly has talent to do things in the world of boxing, but the odds of him making the leap to the next level now get lower and lower with each passing arc.
I've been catching up. Mashiba has what looks like a love interest now. Wild. Beats me what fucking lunatic would allow his daughter to be walked alone home by Mashiba's serial killer-looking ass but hey, what better protection could you have?
"All you Fascists bound to lose."Her father is Mashiba's boss and the head of his fan club, he knows better than anyone aside from Kumi that Mashiba has a good heart. I liked the info-dump and speech Ippo gave, they were interesting looks into Mashiba's opponent and Ippo's own thoughts. And I keep being shocked at how glorious Mashiba's hair has gotten. He really did go from rat's nest to L'oreal.
I was amused at Ippo saying he "knows a little" about his opponent and then machine-gunning the guy's blood type and specific details down to a inhuman level of precision.
Juan Garcia per see seems to be a basic mexican style guy. Interestingly, what is described of him seems reminiscent of Sendo with the emphasis on powerful hooks from odd angles and favouring all-or-nothing firefights. Obviously we haven't even met him, but from what has been described I was reminded of Juan Díaz
, the Mexican-American boxer. Likewise, firefight-favouring, noted for powerful left hooks.
So, Takamura vs Keith Dragon ended on chapter 1350, 141 chapters after Ippo's retirement, which I pegged as the ending of season 7. That fight would be a great place to end Season 8 as a 3-cour season. If Ippo returns to the ring within the next 50 chapters, that could also work as the ending to a 4-cour season 8.
Chapters 1355, 1356, and 1357 came out: Imai and Hoshi trade face-punches throughout Round 1 until Imai does the Makunouchi Special Liver Blow and knocks Hoshi out. Imai's pissed that he can't fight Sendo or Ippo, and Sendo's looking forward to his big fight with Ricardo, but then he gets an announcement that Ricardo's not even going to fight Sendo in his next match?!
I'd like to see Takamura unify at Super Middleweight, but I think he's gonna move up to Light Heavyweight for his next fight. It's been established that he doesn't give a shit about the belts after winning them.
I mean, he left the WBC Junior Middleweight belt behind after his first defense, and he left the WBA and WBC Middleweight belts behind after beating Bison.
Edited by CastletonSnob on Oct 15th 2021 at 6:29:38 AM
Most boxing I see (real or fictional), the fighters always hit either the head or abdomen. I get that the hips and legs are off-limits, but why is the chest never aimed for? Pretty much the only example I can think of is Date's Heartbreak Shot.
Obviously, there's the ribcage there, but I feel like breaking one of those ribs would be far more devastating than breaking one of the smaller floating ribs that they always seem to aim for. And bruising the pecs has got to have some form of pay-off in terms of damage, right? Like how damaging the abs affects the legs.
So im not a boxer, but i think it has to do with how easy it is to hit and how damaging a punch there would be. The ribcage is designed to withstand frontal hits, making punches there not very impactful. Only the diaphragm is a frontal weakspot there and i could imaging that is hard to hit with boxing gloves. The upper ribs are similary not easy to hit, since they can very quickly be at least partially covered by the upper arm. Furthermore, i believe its not that easy to break the ribs and if you dont do that the damage of hitting the upper ribs is mostly to the lungs, which are just airsacks and therefore hard to damage that way. For the lower ribs they break or at least "pop" more easily and damage goes to the liver or the spleen, both of which, being solid, damage much more easily (and hurt like hell).
I studied boxing a little when I was younger, and you do hit the chest, it's just not a main target. Chest hits are mainly for killing the momentum of someone coming at you, or backing them off. The sternum is quite hard and it's easier to damage your hand rather than the other person's chest, so light jabs are pretty much all you're going to see. But generally if you can hit them in the chest, as covering the head usually blocks the chest pretty well at the same time, you can hit them in the head, and that's typically a more rewarding effort. If the other person is exceptionally good at head slipping and covering low, or you're going for a long term shoulder damaging plan the chest can be a viable target.
It's just that a higher priority target is usually available.
That said, chest hits can be pretty devastating and sometimes even fatal. More than a few fights have ended with a blow to the chest.
Edited by Daremo on Oct 16th 2021 at 5:20:26 AM
Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.

So a new chapter is up, since, thanks to the digital releases, there's no need to clean up scanned copies from the low-quality paper weekly magazines like to use. (Mori was one of the last holdouts, as the rest of the magazine he published in was digital except for Ippo for presumably traditionalist reasons). So the chapters will likely hit closer to their release date.
Takamura does land the counter, since "slide" was actual advice, not a mere plateau. Takamura scores a down off the counter, but Keith answers the count and the fight resumes. Takamura psyches himself up (Ippo theorizes he couldn't press forward without doing so) and both meet in the center for a good old-fashioned simultaneous exchange. Keith switches up his stance and nails Takamura to end the chapter.
Edited by Beatman1 on Jul 7th 2021 at 4:26:59 AM