Hajime no Ippo

As someone who practices boxing, yeah that's about right. The traditional boxing stance (the back hand at chin level, front hand at the level of the cheek, both arms close to the body) is built in a manner that guards the sides of the ribgcage pretty thoroughly. This is one of the reasons reason body blows are aimed at the lower torso, aside from the cluster of nerves next to the liver that facilitate livershots, which brings me to my next point: strategics.

A matter of practicality and safety. Boxing strategy is structured around the paths of least effort. The two classic points you punch are the chin an the liver area, which have cluster of nerves that facilitate a knockout, proverbial achilles heels of the body. The frontal part of the chest is mostly bone. Not only does this mean it's very well protected, it doesn't provide advantages as punching the lower torso or the jaw because there just aren't enough nerve clusters to be activated by a blow. The fact its mostly bone also means there's a possibility you're going to mess up your hand if you punch too hard at it. It's for this reason that looping shots to the top of the skull are also ill-advised, because it's basically pure bone and is fairly likely to mess up your hand if you land wrong.

The general lower torso aside from the liver, on the other hand, provide much more enticing targets. The belly has no bones (obviously), so that's an advantage and punching the stomach (correctly) causes fatigue and dizziness as you throw about the liquids therein, killing the legs.

The closest to a sweet spot near the chest is the diaphragm, which if punched (again, correctly) can cause your opponent to lose his breath, which is a classic function of the body jab.

TLDR, the chest just isn't as attractive of a target due bone and biology.

EDIT: Date's heartbreak shot actually stopping cardiac movement is, to my understanding, very much HNI artistic license.

Edited by Gaon on Oct 16th 2021 at 7:25:50 AM

Chapter 1,358: HOLY SHIT RICARDO'S NEXT OPPONENT IS WALLY! WALLY'S BACK BABY, HELL YEAH! I TOLD YOU SO, I TOLD YOU HE'D BE BACK!

Chapter 1359: Huh, I thought we were going to do Mashiba's title match before Wally vs Ricardo, but maybe it'll be the other way around? Lots of plot movement in this chapter, Hoshi's got a really badly bruised face (Imai probably does, too, but we're not focusing on him), Wally is re-introduced and again emphasized as a parallel to Ippo (Kamogawa and Miguel's last chances at glory, since Takamura and Hawk were going to be big regardless), and they go to America, where Wally is going to spar with Volg again!

Also, there's some good big panels of Sendo being enraged that look really nice.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Oct 26th 2021 at 3:02:11 AM

Me seeing that Wally's back from the depths of racial stereotype Hell:

He's a good kid, Gaon.

He's a headache that's what he is.

Chapter 1360: Wally is warmly greeted to the White Fang gym. Volg is having a Junior Lightweight world title defense match in the same card as Wally's match, though Volg is actually the semi-final because Ricardo Martinez ALWAYS takes top billing. Ricardo would probably take top billing in a Takamura world title challenge, and Takamura would bitch about it the whole time. Speaking of Ricardo, he's briefed of Wally's record and is again surprised to hear Ippo mentioned as his one loss.

Prediction: Ippo will beat Ricardo with the 1 cm punch he used to beat Miyata in their second spar.

Chapter 1361: Oh, hey, we are doing Mashiba's fight before Wally's! I'm proud of the growth Taihei and Kintaro are having, if they're able to keep up with this roadwork, I think they're ready to take the pro exam. Kumi and Mashiba have an interesting conversation about moving on in life and we cut straight to Mashiba on the canvas.

Chapter 1362: Masterful misdirection. My respect for Morikawa continues to grow. Also, Ippo was in the right, Itagaki had already tried to use his speed and it failed him. Clinching to buy time was the correct route.

Why does scoring in boxing start at 10 points per Round and only go down to 8 points if your opponent dominated the fight and you were knocked down? What's the reason for having those extra 8 points, isn't that functionally the same as each Round being worth 2 points and going down to 0?

Points are deducted for fouls and da kine, so a boxer could get a lower score after deductions. It's an incentive to fight legally.

So, you're allowed to do 8 fouls per Round?

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Nov 26th 2021 at 2:56:57 AM

In theory, though you're almost definitely going to get disqualified before you get there.

Rather, it makes it harder to win by decision if you're down a bunch of fouls.

Then why set the total so high at 10 points? Why not something lower, like 5? Also, why not make all knockdowns in a Round deduct 1 point, so that it's possible for someone to be down by 3 points in one Round instead of 2 points?

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Nov 26th 2021 at 3:21:48 AM

Technically the scoring is set-up so everyone gets points in a round. Winner of the round gets 10 points, loser gets 9. If someone gets knocked down that someone gets 8 points, if someone gets knocked down twice in the same round that someone gets 7 points and so on and so forth, so the points if nothing else act as a buffer for point loss regarding knockdowns. If both guys knock one another down within the same round, it's 9-9.

Also you get disqualified after a third point deduction.

Edited by Gaon on Nov 26th 2021 at 2:56:06 AM

if someone gets knocked down twice in the same round that someone gets 7 points and so on and so forth, so the points if nothing else act as a buffer for point loss regarding knockdowns. If both guys knock one another down within the same round, it's 9-9.

See, that's what I was wondering about, because it seemed to me like that SHOULD be how it works, but this website says otherwise.

It's open to interpretation, and there's a lot of different interpretations in boxing scoring, but in my experience as a boxing fan this is usually how it goes and the DAZN site is taking a bit of a dim view (which is not totally unsurprising, DAZN fights have been known for some weird decisions).

Much of it vary by country or region. British judges are known for awarding 10-10 rounds rather liberally while everyone just despises giving those. Texas judges on the other hand are known for giving liberally 10-9 or 10-8 rounds for whoever is the most aggreessive (even if that aggression is completly useless and he's missing everything).

It's why there is 3 after all.

And the fight is underway! Garcia dominates Round 1 by controlling Mashiba's attention, hiding step-ins beneath punches and constantly feinting high attacks to go for body blows.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Dec 21st 2021 at 9:39:30 AM

And the fight goes on. Garcia's doing some very classic "mexican style" tricks with the low stance, constant pressure mixed with feints, the large step-ins. The tidbit of him taking huge steps with his front leg and just dragging his rear leg behind forwards reminded me of Canelo Alvarez, who does the same.

If I were on Mashiba's corner I'd say he needs to really pump that jab in all manners possible (flick jabs, strong jabs, e.et.c) while circling around Garcia and keeping his distance, blocking Garcia's eyeview with his lead hand to set-up shots a few rounds down the line, and whenever Garcia closes the gap, clinch and lean or reframe him with his arm (e.g pushing him back with his forearm). So far he's hanging too far back and just trying to survive and that's a recipe to getting yourself killed when fighting against Garcia.

In summary: jab, you motherfucker. Jab your life out.

Chapter 1366: The title is Whispers From The Devil, and what a fantastic title that is. Mashiba thinks back to how he beat Miyata by stepping on his foot, and his dark side tempts him to foul Garcia. Meanwhile, Garcia stays patient and thinks about how he needs to beat Mashiba in order to rematch the current Lightweight World Champ and get back the title he stole (already hyping up the current Lightweight World Champ, good move). Garcia pushes Machiba to the ropes again and Mashiba's dark side demands that he foul Garcia, and the chapter ends with Ippo looking at the match with horror.

Mashiba having to outlast his fouling instincts is always a cool character beat. I feel like there's a 50-50 chance Ippo is looking on in horror because Mashiba doesn't foul and just does something uncharacteristically Mashiba. Clinching, for example, as Mashiba in the past pretty much only clinched when he was at death's door, so him clinching in a genuinely strategic sense would be quite a turnaround for him. I think for me the coolest would probably be if Mashiba did the clinch-spin (when boxer a corners boxers b on the ropes and boxer b clinches and then spins boxer A so their positions reverse in a instant) on him and turned tables instantly. That would be a world-level technique that people are looking for.

Chapter 1,367: Ippo wasn't gaping in horror, he was preparing to yell. Mashiba has figured out Garcia's timing for a foul, but Ippo cheers Mashiba on, prompting the crowd to do the same. Inside Mashiba's head, he prepares to stomp on Garcia's foot, but then steps to the side and jumps out of the corner, all while a roar of indistinct sounds come from the audience. Mashiba wonders why he stopped, then the crowd cheering comes into focus and they're all chanting Mashiba's name. He thinks about his past and commits to ending his old rebellious phase, overcoming this obstacle and going to the world. Mashiba tightens up his guard and turns his back to Garcia, forcing Garcia to move in while Mashiba tries to keep him away with jabs. Garcia pushes in and Mashiba raises his left arm even higher to protect his face, which is actually to bait Garcia into a body blow and hide his right arm preparing a low uppercut to hit Garcia in the face.

I like that the lesson Mashiba learned against Garcia in this chapter comes from Garcia's own fighting style: hiding an uppercut behind his blocking arm the same way Garcia hides his step-in beneath his jab.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jan 18th 2022 at 12:15:40 PM

If the anime was still around, the panel Mashiba says "this phase ends now" would be the moment "Inner Light"'s riff would play:

I could literally hear it in my head. This was a fun chapter, hope to see the fight progress now.