The Survival Match of Asian Champions Saga, also known as the OPBF Saga, is the seventh story saga and the third in the second part of the series.
Ippo Makunouchi and his coach Genji Kamogawa decide to take a detour route to climb to the world stage by not relinquishing the JBC belt yet but by defeating all the national champions in the pacific region, becoming the unofficial champion of the OPBF and from there on aiming for greater heights. Meanwhile Manabu Itagaki has a match against Hiroyuki Hoshi, who wanted to fight Ippo if he won against Itagaki. Itagaki defeated him while showing off incredible talent that he previously had not shown.
The first national champion to go against Ippo is Jimmy Sisphar of Thailand, a tough scarred In-Fighter that Ichirō Miyata previously won against. Meanwhile, Miyata has a non-title defence match against Filipino ranker Donnie Sultan. Ippo then challenges Malcolm Gedo, the national champion of the Philippines. Miyata's destined match against the Filipino OPBF interim-champion Randy Boy Junior is finally decided. After that fateful fight, Ryō Mashiba since being disqualified from his last title defence is back, having moved up to lightweight, he challenges the Thai OPBF champion Aaron Domingo. For the last survival match, Ippo is faced against the talented but inexperienced Indonesian champion, Wally, who is the last son of the world renowned trainer Miguel Zale.