Tsukahara (塚原, Tsukahara) is the coach and owner of the Tsukahara gym. He trained boxers such as Fukui Kyōsuke, and is friends with Kamogawa Genji.
Background[]
When his boxer, Fukui Kyōsuke, was going to fight Malcolm Gedo, Tsukahara refused to have Fukui get into a fixed match with Gedo, who offered during the weigh-in. However, Kurita Baron, who was a freelance trainer working for his gym at the time, went to Gedo's room in the venue multiple times before the match began. Tsukahara noticed it and fired Baron, however, a deal was already made, as Gedo threw the match and made Fukui win by decision.
History[]
Part II[]
Winner Takes All Arc[]
Tsukahara telling Kamogawa, Yagi, and Ippo about Fukui's fixed match against Gedo.
When Tsukahara was visited at his gym by Kamogawa Genji, he showed Kamogawa the video tape of Fukui Kyōsuke fighting against Malcolm Gedo and winning. As Kamogawa could tell that it was a fixed match since Gedo was an opponent above Fukui's level, throwing the match, Tsukahara was scolded and beaten with a cane by Kamogawa for doing a fixed match. A police officer saw the incident and arrested Kamogawa, however, Tsukahara went to the police station and pleaded for Kamogawa to be released. After Kamogawa was bailed out of jail, Tsukahara met him, Yagi Haruhiko, and Makunouchi Ippo and apologised to Kamogawa. The group went to a restaurant, where Tsukahara explained how he refused a fixed match when Gedo offered, but Gedo did it after freelance trainer Kurita Baron made a deal with him. He revealed that Fukui retired afterwards and pleaded to Ippo for him to defeat Gedo.
When the day of Ippo's match against Gedo arrived, Tsuhakara went to the Kōrakuen Hall to watch it with Fukui. As Ippo scored a down on Gedo in the first round, he and Fukui were approached by Īmura Mari, who wanted to ask what kind of fighter Gedo is. During the sixth round, when Fukui explained to Mari that Ippo is having trouble against Gedo due to his depth perception, Tsukahara added that Ippo is like a high performance made up of training and passion that was built with Kamogawa, however, Ippo lost a crucial piece to any boxer: his depth perception. After the seventh round, Tsukahara believed that Kamogawa should stop the match from continuing to save Ippo's career due to Ippo still having trouble and visibly damaged, however, Kamogawa decided to continue, leaving Tsukahara in shock. He watched as Ippo won against Gedo by knockout in the eighth round.
Appearance[]
He is an elderly man with bushy grey or white hair, eyebrows, and moustache.
Etymology[]
- The name Tsukahara means "mound, hill/hillock, heap, knoll, pile, drift, stack, bank, grave" (塚) (tsuka) and "field, plain" (原) (hara).