Chapter 5

The 1965 Uppercut
Chapter Info
Next	Chapter 6
Chapter	5
Previous	Chapter 4
Volume	1
Japanese Title	1965年のアッパーカット
Romanized Title	1965-nen no Appākatto
Pages	20
Arc	Early Days Arc
Episode	Round 4 (Season 1) (p. 7-19)
Issue	Weekly Shōnen Magazine #47, 1989 (cover date): November 8, 1989
Release (JP)	October 25, 1989
Release (US)	September 21, 2023

The 1965 Uppercut is Round 5 of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo manga series.

Details

• Characters Introduced: Miyazaki
• Techniques Introduced: Uppercut
• Real Life People Mentioned: Éder Jofre
• Title Page Character(s): Ippo Makunouchi, Ichirō Miyata, Mamoru Takamura

Summary

A customer at the Makunouchi Fishing Boat notices Ippo's damaged face and asks his mother, about it. She speaks of his desire to become a boxer and how she opposes it, but the customer reminds her of her husband's strength and kindness as well as how it reflected in Ippo. The customer, who is impressed by Ippo's balance on the boat, tells Ippo that boxing will prevent him from rebelling and advises Ippo to look after her, leaving Ippo confused about the message. Ippo arrives at the Kamogawa gym for his first day of training and shouts an incredibly loud greeting as he enters, startling everyone and earning himself a punch from Takamura. Kamogawa then tells Ippo to get in the ring train with a jump rope, a feat that Ippo fails horribly. Kamogawa decides to let Ippo work on the mitts instead. Ippo, worrying about causing an injury, lands a straight on the mitts and wonders if he hurt Kamogawa, but the latter is actually pleased with Ippo's strength. Kamogawa, tells Ippo that his strength may be comparable to that of Miyata's, capturing the latter's attention. Ippo denies, but Kamogawa replies that he would be able to fight at the same level and defeat him in three months. Ippo is told that he is to learn the orthodox uppercut during training and, after being shown the movements, he executes a perfect textbook uppercut identical to that of Éder Jofre's. Kamogawa tells Ippo to throw another uppercut, and once again it misses (as Kamogawa had moved the mitt) but was executed perfectly. Takamura notices Miyata's sharp gaze and realises that Kamogawa's words towards Ippo was an indirect way of raising Miyata's fighting spirit. Ippo wonders why he got praised despite missing both hits.

Trivia

• The match Genji Kamogawa watched was the Éder Jofre vs. Masahiko "Fighting" Harada match that happened in May 18, 1965, where his streak as an undefeated fighter was broken when he lost to "Fighting Harada" by a controversial fifteen-round split decision in Nagoya, Japan, to lose the world bantamweight title. Harada was the only fighter ever to defeat Jofre as a professional.