Chapter 27

Ring Name
Chapter Info
Next	Chapter 28
Chapter	27
Previous	Chapter 26
Volume	4
Japanese Title	リングネーム
Romanized Title	Ringu Nēmu
Pages	19
Arc	Rookie King Tournament: First Rounder Arc
Episode	Round 13 (Season 1) (p.4-19)
Issue	Weekly Shōnen Magazine #19, 1990 (cover date): April 25, 1990
Release (JP)	April 11, 1990
Release (US)	September 21, 2023

Ring Name, or Ring Names in the official K Manga English translation is Round 27 of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo manga series.

Details

• Characters Introduced: Jason Ozuma
• Locations Introduced: Kashiwagi Boxing Gym, Araki Boxing Gym, Arakawa Boxing Gym, Wakabayashi Boxing Gym, Mafune Boxing Gym, Maruebi Boxing Gym, Hanada Boxing Gym, New Japan Boxing Gym, Kawai Boxing Gym, Sayama Boxing Gym
• Real Life People Mentioned: Fighting Harada, Jirō Watanabe, Muguruma Takuya
• Title Page Character(s): Mamoru Takamura, Ippo Makunouchi

Summary

After set of sparring sessions where Ippo overwhelms Kimura and Aoki (who take turns between each other til they wear Ippo down), the latter, treats Ippo to free ramen at the Iwata's Chinese Noodles, in celebration for being one year at the Kamogawa gym. They talk about the Rookie King Tournament. The next day, Yagi reveals that Miyata and Mashiba are in a separate block from Ippo, but last year's Inter-High Champion Ryūichi Hayami could be a problem. Ippo's first opponent is Jason Ozuma, which the boxers believe this to be a ring name and tease Ippo about a ring name which references his large penis. The next day, Ippo arrives at the gym and a panicked Aoki tells Ippo that "Jason Ozuma" isn't a ring name and shows him a photo of Ozuma, revealing that the boxer is an African American man born in the United States.

Trivia

• The ring name suggestions were: Freddy Ippo, Puma Ippo, Big Mara Ippo, Utamaro Ippo.
  • Freddy Ippo - It is a reference to horror movie character Freddy Krueger.
  • Puma Ippo - There was a real life Japanese boxer that used "Puma" as a ring name, Puma Toguchi (ピューマ渡久地) or his real name was Takato Toguchi (渡久地 隆人).
  • Big Mara Ippo - Mara (マーラ) was originally used as a euphemism for "penis" among Buddhist monks, which references sensual lust as an obstacle to enlightenment.
  • Utamaro Ippo - Kitagawa Utamaro is one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings, and is best known for his bijin ōkubi-e "large-headed pictures of beautiful women" of the 1790s.
• In the official K Manga English translation of the chapter, when Aoki shows Ippo the picture of Ozuma, he doesn't describe that he is a "strong black guy", instead he says "this foreign dude".