The Dragon's Wound is Round 1221 of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo manga series.
Details[]
- Title Page Character(s): Ippo Makunouchi, Ryūichi Hayami, Kenta Kobashi
Summary[]
Hayami's opponent thinks his chance has come after Hayami took a down. Ippo thinks Hayami's down looked similar to his. Before that down, Ippo was envious watching the fighters in the ring. Hayami thinks the audience is lucky they are able to watch his legendary performance. As the fight goes on, he is starting to get over confident and makes a mistake. The opponent finally lands a solid punch on Hayami's face. He continues to land more and more punches on Hayami until he goes down. The referee stops the match. The audience notes it is the same old pattern for Hayami, where he starts out strong but lose it in the end because of his glass jaw. Mari comments that it's hard to watch since Hayami's so weak to punches that it makes one want to look away. Ippo realises Hayami's situation is similar to his, and he can't keep dreaming any longer. Kobashi meets up with Ippo to talk about Hayami. He tells Ippo that he been to every match of Hayami, and each match leaves him shocked. He tells Ippo that Hayami's accumulated too much damage and now he's on the verge of breaking. When he realised that help contribute toward that breakage, it pains his heart. Ippo does too, and glad that his fists won't be able to destroy others or take things away from them. Kobashi tells Ippo there was one more boxer that he used to watch that retired recently. He wonders if Ippo is satisfied now that he is retired, or if he was able to achieve his goals. Ippo tells Kobashi since he watches his matches, he should realise that he is just like Hayami. Kobashi tells Ippo that he become unable to take hits, but it's not like he was issued a doctor stop. Mari comments that a Doctor stop is not something that's order unless the boxer has indisputably suffered extensive physical trauma. If a boxer makes the decision themselves to retired, it is something to be respected. It is not something other have the right to try to intervene with. If an injured boxer doesn't time it right, then it turns out to Hayami's situation. Kobashi agrees, but he feel's Ippo is special, and wonder if he should stop expecting anything from Ippo, which he answer yes right away, where he debated every kind of situation inside his head already. Mari wonders if Hayami's done the same thing. Kobashi believes Hayami got too impatient. If he wanted to stay active, he should've prioritised taking as little damage as possible for 1 to 2 years. That way, he would've had the potential to return to his former self. Yet the reason for his defeat was because he was chasing an image of his former self. Ippo notes that Hayami wanted to be a legend. Takamura arrives and mentions that Hayami is already a legend, a legendary junker. Ippo disagrees, and Kobashi wants to disagree with Takamura but is scared to. Takamura adds that it is not just limited to boxers, but for anyone that calls themselves a "pro," breaking down is natural. He adds that there is no way to keep fighting without some risk to life and limb, but that is no excuse, as they just have to bite their tongue, and lick their wounds in private, and, even if it's just barely, they should make sure they win, and talking about stopping halfway or taking breaks in between is unnecessary. Kobashi starts to apologise, when Ippo tells him not to since Takamura is the one that is at fault here. Kimura's match is about to start. Ippo wants Takamura to stop calling him a junker if he does a good job as a second, and to pay him back his money. Ippo takes off the weights on his arms and gets ready for his debut as a second at Kimura's match.