[Locke]

Ippo 27.

What an incredible match! I may not have cared about Mashiba, but he won me over with his fighting spirit, this was an all out war where both sides were pushed to their very limits and whenever it seemed Ippo was on top, Mashiba would overturn him through sheer willpower. It was just incredible. Wow this show is good.

The fun part about this match is Ippo is the underdog as he has to be, given the genre this fits into but in reality what separates him apart from a lot of protagonists in similar shows is he is genuinely talented and good at what he does. He may not be refined, but unlike similar protagonists he doesn't win on guts alone but he isn't some prodigy who descended from the spirit boxer while containing the will of all boxers and the great demon boxer within him either, he wins because he trains hard and picks up actual skills and techniques. So to see him finally face someone as skilled and as full of guts as him was just incredible, a clash of titans. I'm actually quite happy Miyata lost as we got this wonderful match because of that.

Can't wait for the next episode to see how all this ends!