When Sendo is choosing what to do next he mentions that it is between him and Miyata. I doubt it was ever a real consideration from the author but I think their match could have been great. I'm sure I would have been salty if Sendo won as I am a Miyata fanboy but I think I would have loved the fight itself.
Miyata shitty body and cool style versus Sendo agressive style and destructive power. The slow to set up counters versus his Sendo instinctual punching. It would kinda be watching a cracked mirror of the Ippo/miyata fight but where Ippo has a thousand time more confidence and is really into crushing Miyata instead of pure admiration. I really thinl it could be a great idea. Maybe you could have made it Miyata last fight before he move up a weight class.
@Ivotas:
I had my issues with how the fight ended since day one. But only after reading your detailed post I just literally got that idea. I said previously that I have no problems with Sendo winning. But the how just sucks and really comes down to nothing else but because it's him. It was a fight I enjoyed a lot but the end soured it for me.
I understand enjoying the match. It's a boxing manga and Sendo makes good slugfest. he goes hard and how he makes it fun how much he enjoys them.
But starting my reread from the first Gonzales fight to get there. There was no way the guy that beat Ippo the way he did would lose to someone with no strategy and just hoping for a slugfest. I cant enjoy a fight I disagree so much with. They have several difference(like range) but for the most part Sendo is a more agressive, less strategic version of Ippo. And I dont think Gonzalez would lose to something like that. It would be like if Date lost to Sendo right after fighting Ippo.
Sometimes you can have the weaker boxer win sometimes but its usually because of a strategy(Kimura v Mahshiba) or a clear advantage the weaker boxer. Some lost to Ippo because they wanted to win by KO, Kimimura pushed Mashiba thanks to a strategy that took 6 rounds to set up.It even kinda happened with Ippo and Gonzalez where he was winning easily keeping his distance but gave Ippo a fighting chance in a close range battle.But Sendo didnt have that. Gonzalez met him in the middle and destroyed him there but just somehow still lost in the end.
The 2 things that annoy me most was the coach telling Gonzalez is just better since it means the author knows the win is bs and did it anyway. But also at the end Sendo say he wants to take the counter that down Ippo and start messing up on purpose. So he won a match he shouldn't while choosing to make things worse for himself.
When Gonzales defeated Ippo he did it because he was just that good. And it showed the gap between Japan's no. 1 and the world. And I'm not buying into the entire "Ippo got weaker" had explanation because we never really saw him got actually weeker. It's just what some dudes said. At the end of the day Ippo did a good job against Alf. He didn't lose because he got weaker but because Gonzales was better. Yet, Sendo wins because he punches really hard, ignoring all the build up to world class boxing we've had till then.
Gonzales was easily the better boxer and he showed that in the first part of the match. And the only reason Ippo got a chance was because Gonzalez decided to slug it out and gave up on defense. but I think Ippo sayin he had a motivation problem is true. His skills and tactics were at their best in that fight but he was content instead of being hungry like when he fought certain people like Sawamura or Mashiba.
But yes Sendo really is a problem to the world class boxing idea. Takamura, Miyata, Mashiba… All of them have had to step up their strategies when dealing with high class fighters. And the last 2 are still in the pacific. And Ippo went through hell running the gauntlet beating a bunch of national champion and experiencing new style before he felt ready for the world(and showed some even if it wasnt enough) .
As much as I like Sendo, he's a prime example of how a characters popularity influences the author to write more fanservice-ish scenes at the cost if compromising established elements in the manga.
Recently he became a magic unicorn where the story constantly reinforce how awesome he is. He went from losing his title to getting third place in the world ranking(Ippo was 7th facing Gonzalez and Mashiba is still trying to find a place), breaking Martinez legendary decade streak and beating Gonzalez without even a down and now making Martinez run from a fight.
Another thing is the entire punch drunk thing about Ippo. Ippo retired because all the punches he took to the head took their toll on his health. Yet, here we have wonder boy who get's a boner when someone punches him in the face really hard. And above all he likes taking Ippo's big dick strong punches the most and yet, no health issues for him. Why? Because he's Sendo. That's literally all it comes down to. I'm sorry, but if that's shit in Fairy Fail then it's shit in Hajime no Ippo too.
I dont really mind that part since its a condition that varies from people to people.
Also I honestly think Ippo takes more punches. Usually Sendo fights are him pressuring his opponent and clobbering them while Ippo fights are him getting beat within an inch of his life before he finally land those last couple blows.
And I think Ippo has met more heavy punchers and taken more counters. Like Sendo loves Ippo because he's the one guy that fight as hard as him. But Ippo seem to meet those every 2-3 fights.
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@Satsuki:
I think a 1 year time skip would have worked, except we have to remember that a boxer has a timeline. Your body can only age for so long before you have to retire (pretty much any athlete, really). Ippo is still in his 20s (I think), so he's still got time, but it's not something you can dawdle over either.
Still, we need to see Ippo doing more as a coach to his apprentices if we're really going to see him grow.
The small period an athelete can exist is why I chose 1 year so it doesnt become too hard to swallow all those people still being around. But I think we have to already be a couple months into Ippo's retirement even without timeskip so a year to get back into wouldnt have been too terrible I think.
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One cool thing about the Gonzales fight was Ippo yelling at Sendo's student to let him go fight instead of buying time. Not often you see Ippo sound so forceful and decisive.