Chapter 521

Like a Pro
Chapter Info
Next	Chapter 522
Chapter	521
Previous	Chapter 520
Volume	57
Japanese Title	プロの顔
Romanized Title	Puro no Kao
Pages	20
Arc	A Passing Point Arc
Episode	Round 16 (Season 3) (p.12-14, 16-19)
Issue	Weekly Shōnen Magazine #20, 2001 (cover date): May 1, 2001
Release (JP)	April 18, 2001

Like a Pro is Round 521 of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo manga series.

Details

• Title Page Character(s): Manabu Itagaki

Summary

Itagaki fights against his opponent in the quarter-finals of the East Japan Rookie King Tournament at the Kōrakuen Hall, winning by knockout after having a difficult time at first. Seeing his victory, Takamura believed that Itagaki was testing himself to see how much stronger he has gotten since training with Ippo. Walking home with Ippo with a swollen face, Itagaki asked if he looked more like a pro now before stopping himself, remembering how Ippo told him how he doesn't take his fights seriously after losing his debut match. After Ippo reminds Itagaki that he has two matches until the finals of the tournament, Itagaki wishes to defeat Imai so that he can start to be proud. With a month left before the matches, Kimura, while doing roadwork went to check on Aoki at the fishing spot since Aoki has been fishing in order to beat Yagi so that Takamura can call off the bet of getting Papaya's haircut. When Kimura got there, there was a sign that says "no Aoki's allowed" since Aoki got kicked out after he and Tomiko got obnoxious. Later, Takamura, Aoki, and Kimura go to their training camp under the supervision of Kamogawa and Shinoda. As the three boxers do roadwork, Shinoda mentions to Kamogawa how the three are hard workers, especially Takamura, who pushes the other two to work harder with his fighting spirit and determination. Kamogawa notes that even though Takamura went up a weight class, the difficulty of his weight control won't change too much. Shinoda asks Kamogawa if he thinks Takamura can conquer two weight classes. Kamogawa answers that he doesn't know, as Takamura is stepping in an uncharted territory for the Japanese, where there has never been a time where one has taken both junior middleweight and middleweight world titles.