Rhythm is Round 1170 of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo manga series.
Details[]
- Title Page Character(s): Ichirō Miyata, Ippo Makunouchi, Ryūji Nagumo, Puerto Rican Champion
Summary[]
The world champion is getting used to Nagumo's punches and start to counter attack with punches, but Nagumo lands a counter on him instead. He lured him in, and then threw a sharp compact left hook. The world champion pushes in again not fearing the counter. The world champion attacks and Nagumo goes down. Ippo wonders if Miyata held back during their spar. Miyata once again asks if Ippo really lost to Nagumo. Ippo mention he really did knock him down, where he couldn't keep up with his speed, and landed two solid lefts on him. Nagumo stands up and takes a fighting pose, and throws punches at the world champion, but Nagumo can't stand up to him gets hit instead. Nagumo ends up clinching to buy time. The referee breaks it up fast. Nagumo is able to land some lefts, but they don't effect the world champion. Miyata mentions that it was clear as soon as they matched up that Nagumo might be unpredictable, but he's clearly not world class. He had to stop himself from getting too into it. If he had fought seriously, he would have probably injured him and ruined his World title shots. So he held back instead. Miyata just couldn't believe Ippo could go down to "that". Ippo thinks that Nagumo has a chance, but Miyata tells Ippo didn't he learn from his last match that the World Stage isn't easy. The world champion continues hitting Nagumo repeatedly. The referee finally moves in and stops the match. Nagumo loses the match. After the match, Ippo asks Miyata if he wants to go out for drinks, but Miyata turns him down since he doesn't intend on being friendly with him. As he leaves, Miyata asks him if he is broken.