01x11 - Fearless Challenger

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We will now begin the Japanese featherweight title match!

First, we have the challenger coming out of the blue corner, Sawamura Ryuuhei!

This is the Owari Dragon, who counts his Left b*llet and Lightning Right among his weapons!

The Dragon stands in the middle of the ring, gazing at...

the Japanese Featherweight Champion,

Makunouchi Ippo!

Just listen to those punches as they cut through the air!

He goes to the red corner!

This is his fifth title defense.

Will Makunouchi remain the KO King?

Or will the Owari Dragon end his reign?

Whoa! The challenger rushes in! The bell hasn't even rung yet!

Not yet, Sawamura!

Does he really want to fight that badly?

Fine by me!

That stunt must've flipped a switch within the champion.

He comes forward without waiting for the start of the match.

I'm coming after you. I won't back down!

A storm is brewing as we wait for the bell.

Both fighters rush forward!

But wait! The challenger goes right past!

Wh-What?

Wh-What is he doing?

Is he playing mind games? Mocking him?

He's scoping him out.

He's wondering what's the best way to devour him.

Please turn around and face me!

The champion comes with a quick right hand!

He wastes no time taking advantage of that stumble! He has him on the ropes!

He breaks the guard!

Oh, but he lands on his rear!

Why did he have to slip there?

You're kidding!

I haven't gotten up yet!

H-He took a swing at the fallen champion!

What are you doing? Take a walk!

And the referee deducts a point!

The challenger is now down a point!

His first punch of the night was an astonishingly ill*gal one!

Is he out of his mind?!

He made sure he was down before punching him!

He didn't fall on his own.

Sawamura tripped him.

Ippo's a damn boy scout.
Nothing else will piss him off more.

Are we clear? Next time you do that, you forfeit the match!

Are you listening?

Aren't you even ashamed?!

Don't diss the champion!

This ain't a street fight, you clown!

God, what a d*ck!

Makunouchi, go knock him on his a*s!

I'm fine, restart the match.

Don't stand around, get in there!

Go get him, Makunouchi!

Box!

The champion's on the hunt!

Those hooks he's raining are fists of actual fury!

He doesn't even care if they're being blocked!

He backs the challenger to a corner!

A counter!

Dead on!

He dodges it!

That keen left barely grazes his hair!

He dodges another one!

He can avoid those counters?

All those title defenses put Makunouchi on a whole new level.

The champion returns with a piercing liver blow!

The challenger's poker face is now writhing in pain!

And another body blow!

Followed by a straight right!

That's the bell and the end of the first round!

The champion takes a stance that seems to say, "How do you like that?"

Now that's a champion who doesn't let an ill*gal punch faze him!

This isn't over by a long shot.

The champion dominated the first round!

The challenger watches him walk away!

Will the challenger be able to rally back?

He ain't gonna let it end this way.

I don't care who wins, but don't let him get hurt!

Keep him safe, please!

Round two!

It's now the second round!

Whoa! The challenger wants to tap gloves!

What brought on this gentlemanly behavior?

I knew it was a fake!

What a d*uche!

Nice look you've got.

All it does is cure the meat.

Talk about your dirty tricks.

Is he really as good as you say he is?

This isn't the true Sawamura.

He must have something brutal up his sleeve.

The champion dives in!

He pushes him back with a flurry of punches!

A boxing match is where we both put our training to practice!

Where we compare the skills and self-worth we gain from training!

So why do you commit all those fouls and offenses?

Don't make a mockery of boxing!

A thunderous body blow!

That one really put a dent into him!

Whoa, watch out!

Those damn counters!

That gave me chills!

His timing is almost perfect!

I need to concentrate. Concentrate!

sh**t. I thought you'd be sloppier than this.

Yet, you're able to move that fast?

But I know how fast you swing.

Once I raise my tempo, you're mine.

He sped up his instep!

Down he goes! It's a down!

The champion throws a heavy blow in the second round!

Here comes the count!

One!

I know you felt that. Now what?

Two!

Three!

But the challenger gets up as if nothing happened!

Four!

Five!

Six!

His knees are buckling!

You knew you couldn't stay up!

Seven!

He can't continue! Stop the fight, Referee!

Eight!

No wonder he has so many KO's.

That would put out anyone who ate it.

The challenger manages to take up a fighting pose.

Box!

The fight continues!

The champion goes for the k*ll!

The challenger can only block him!

At least he's up.

But that punch cuts right to the bone.

He's not gonna recover soon.

He can't take another one.

The challenger's on the ropes!

Damn, I can't maintain my footing.

Here's my chance!

It's not fair!

Oh! He clinches!

And they fall!

H-He tripped me again!

It's not fair that you get to do all the punching.

Let me punch you too.

Get up!

What's with you? Get up!

The challenger's still not getting up!

Are his legs not listening to him?

He's just buying time!

Make him get up, Referee!

He'll recover!

Come on, start the match!

This is my chance!

The referee directs him to the blue corner. It appears his taping is loose.

The match is paused for the moment.

But he was the one who tore it off!

Does his reputation matter that little to him?

He's just buying more time!

You're a scumbag, Sawamura!

Are we watching the same match, Referee?

I'm done here. Now get out there.

Give me... more time...

This should have ended sooner, if he were the boxer I thought he was.

But he's gotten a lot stronger for this match.

Color me surprised.

I took a lot of damage trying to close that gap.

I can't stall any longer!

Now go!

We're restarting the match! Get out of your corner!

Sure, I'm good.

And 100 percent.

Box!

You only stopped the match for 20 seconds!

I don't think you've completely recovered!

I still have my chance!

This isn't the same person I've been boxing!

The challenger switched from a guardless stance to one where he's putting out his left glove!

Is the champion cautious? He hasn't taken another step!

He does have an acute ability to sense danger.

But this is Sawamura's real pose.

This is the pose he takes when he knows he's facing a strong opponent!

You're saying we're seeing the real Sawamura?

Yeah.

In other words, he knows he needs to get serious in order to beat Makunouchi.

The fighters are at a stalemate!

Only 40 seconds remain in the second round!

I've never seen this stance before.

His body seems far away.

What to do? How do I get in?

That left hand is in the way!

Add that rhythm to it...

It's going up and down, matching my urge to get a move on.

I think he's trying to match my timing!

But things are going nowhere fast!

Good! And before he brings his fist back...

He's already brought it back for another punch!

It didn't come back all the way to his chin!

He's got that left out to...

He's gonna punch!

Whoa! That blew the champion backwards!

Was that... his jab?!

It felt like a small, round, and powerful projectile.

And it blasted right through me!

His nose is bleeding!

Wasn't he blocking?!

Was the punch that hard?!

He twisted his wrist and shoulders when throwing that left.

His punch drilled in a way that focused all his strength into one tiny area.

It may look like the corkscrew punch favored by Latin American boxers, but I call it like I see it.

The b*llet!

It looks like he's pointing a g*n at me.

I know he has his finger on the trigger!

If I move, he'll peel off a b*llet!

But I can make him miss the vital areas!

He can pull the trigger all he wants!

The champion goes up the middle!

Forget those punches, just go for his throat!

It's a hail of b*ll*ts!

Those lefts are coming from everywhere!

The champion can't get in close!

That left is like a machine g*n!

Whoa, he couldn't avoid that!

He's blasted back to the center!

How could he pull off all those powerful lefts?

Not to mention maintaining their pinpoint accuracy?

The kid can no longer rush in blindly!

You see that?

Good God.

To do a corkscrew, you need to create momentum with your body and twist around.

It can't be done repeatedly.

But all he does is flex his elbow at constant angles and turn his shoulder inward.

You can only do that if you've got a strong shoulder and wrist.

It's not something that can be taught.

He's not someone who wants to be taught, anyway.

He hates taking lessons from anybody.

The guy was born to punch people.

That left's hard to handle!

He could get a down with that jab!

He's still gonna go after him.

He's more incensed than he usually is.

Ippo's gonna cowboy his way in.

Makunouchi-san.

Doesn't matter if it's strong or quick, a single left ain't gonna stop him.

Stop wasting time, Makunouchi.

Hurry up and break two or three of his ribs already!

I won't lose!

I will never lose to him!

I will not back away from any fight or slugfest!

Oh! And that's the bell!

The second round's done!

It looks like he's really angry.

He'll come after me in the next round, count on it.

Yeah, he'll definitely come.

That's where the trap is set.

Good Lord.

That guy is a better natural counterpuncher than I am.

Makunouchi might actually lose.

What was that?

He's better than you? You can sense that?

I'm sure he'll demonstrate that.

Demonstrate what?

Something I and every other counterpuncher out there can learn from.

Round three!

Here we are in the third round, with the champion moving in at the urging of the crowd!

But, the challenger isn't letting him do any infighting!

He's making sure I can't reach him!

I have to get in closer!

There's his cross-arm block!

He blocks the b*ll*ts as he inches forward!

You can't maintain that tight guard and punch at the same time.

That's right, force your way in.

That's the only way to do it.

Wh-What is it?

He knows Makunouchi has to force his way in.

So what has he planned?

All that dirty fighting served to make Makunouchi's rhythm more regular.

The b*llet is so incredible that it added fuel to his rage.

Makunouchi's determination to get closer to him is making his rhythm too regular.

He's laying all sorts of traps.
The situation's almost too perfect!

Yes, he's in front of me!

Here goes!

You probably feel the electricity coming from your head to your fingertips.

Its speed and impact are like a thunderclap.

That's your Lightning Right!

Out comes his mouthpiece along with some blood!

What just happened?

I-It's his right! It's his right counter!

God dammit!

It was so fast, I could only see the end of it!

The champion's falling backwards!

Can he regain his footing?

Kid!

Wait! Why am I seeing the mat?

Why is he over there?

I have to punch! I have to attack!

He regains his footing!

His legs aren't working! He's still hurting!

My feet aren't going forward!

What happened? Did I get punched?

The right? Was it a right counter?

He's just now realizing it!

Sawamura's right was simply that fast.

He rains a barrage of lefts looking to put him out!

I'm not backing away! I'm hitting back!

He's being kept completely at bay.

He can either clinch or back off entirely.

But Makunouchi will never back off.

He'll always try to return a punch.

That's one of his strong points.

But that's backfiring on him. Now he's just a sandbag.

We can catch glimpses of his face swelling up!

Is he even conscious?

Whoa! He swings back!

Not over yet!

The champion's still going in!

I thought you'd be well-done by now, but I guess you're still too rare.

I got through! I can do this!

Oh no! He has his timing down completely!

Whoa! That counter came in like a firebolt!

That Lightning Right went straight through the champion!

He leans on the challenger to avoid a down!

That's the end of the third round!

You still don't look ready to eat.

Kid, are you all right?

I'm fine.

I can still...

That right counter...

It left me conscious but unable to move.

My nervous system was unable to function.

If I do get through those lefts, that right will be waiting for me!

Somewhere along the way he transitions from a serial fouler to a serious boxer.

Dammit, what do I do?!

Don't panic.

Fists of fire and a cool head. Those are the basics.

The basics?

Those Left b*ll*ts are his lifeline.

He's also found a good distance and timing for them.

You need to find a way to slip through those lefts.

In order to slip through, I need to tighten my guard and sway my body.

The very basics!

You're in control of this match.

However, Makunouchi is still able to stick with it, no matter how beaten up he looks.

Don't rush things, take your time, and hurt him more.

I don't like eating tough meat.

I will wait for him to slowly tenderize...

then devour him.