The Barrier to the World Stage is Round 1266 of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo manga series.
Details[]
- Title Page Character(s): Ippo Makunouchi, Mamoru Takamura, Michael Goat
Summary[]
Ippo worries about Takamura, as his guard has tightened. When Takamura is hit by Goat's lefts, he comments how Goat's rhythm is off. Kamogawa notes how Takamura must be surprised by something as he is observing and analysing Goat, however, as Takamura's not doing footwork and not throwing punches, it becomes a vicious cycle. After Ippo thinks of what he would do, he shouts to Takamura to give him advice, but was stopped by Kamogawa, who told him to just watch. With Takamura's back at the ropes, he goes towards Goat with lefts. Goat throws lefts of his own, landing some of his lefts, while dodging Takamura's. Takamura manages to hit Goat's guard with a left hook, however he gets hit multiple times after. Takamura continues trying to hit Goat with huge swings that Goat dodges, while Goat gets a few hits in. Kimura comments on how incredible Goat's fighting style is, while Aoki points out how open Takamura is with his big swings. Takamura tries to get closer to Goat, but is stopped by his lefts and one-two. Just as Takamura began to throw a punch, the referee stops the match as round one finishes and the announcer claims the points are 10-9 for Goat.