World Contender Saga

The World Contender Saga, also known as World Class Saga, is the eighth story saga, as well the fourth and last in the second part of the series.

With Ippo's victory over the Asian national champions and becoming the unofficial OPBF champion, the Class A Tournament begins, with Manabu Itagaki, Masaru Aoki and Tatsuya Kimura partaking in it. For the first round, Itagaki has a match against Takuzō Karasawa, whom Ippo has fought previously, while Aoki and Kimura have a match against Itō Jackal and Takeshi Ryūzaki respectively. It is Itagaki's first time truly showing his untapped potential and his obsessed goal in surpassing Ippo's time record. Before moving to the world stage, Ippo is advised by his coach Genji Kamogawa to show that he is worthy of the world with his eighth JBC title defence match against Hisato Kojima, which takes place before Mamoru Takamura's fourth WBC middleweight title defence against Peter Rabbitson.

After the big victory, his coach tells him that it is about time to set a new goal and take on the world, to fight the undefeated WBA world champion, Ricardo Martínez. Then for the Class A Tournament finals, Itagaki, Aoki, and Kimura have matches in the Class A Tournament. Itagaki is to fight Takuma Saeki, another previously defeated opponent of Ippo, while Aoki is to fight Shinobu Iga, and Kimura fights a former champion.

After a few days, Ippo and Takeshi Sendō watches live their past rival take on the world stage. Alexander Volg Zangief's match against the IBF world champion, Mike Elliott, which happens on the other side of the ocean in Las Vegas.

Ippo having no other known challengers in Japan, finally challenges the WBA second ranker, Alfredo González, in a world title preliminary match that will decide who will get to face Ricardo for the title.

With multiple world title defences, Takamura wants to finally move up to the next weight class, but the coach provides Takamura with a unification bout instead, taking the challenge of the WBA middleweight champion, Richard Bison, while also defending his WBC middleweight title for the fifth time. Along with this historic match, Sendō fights WBA fourth ranker José Nargo and Ryō Mashiba defends his OPBF lightweight title for the first time against Romeo. Ippo remembers what Takamura told him about crossing the line as he watches them going beyond their limits, an otherworldly performance.

While Ippo's rivals are achieving greater heights, Ippo starts to be left behind. Ippo is banned from the Kamogawa Boxing Gym for ten months with concerns of the Punch Drunk Syndrome and until his head clears. During that time, he trains and aims to achieve a greater evolution for the Dempsey Roll.

Kamogawa announces to Ippo that his comeback match has been decided, right before Takamura's first WBA and sixth WBC title defences against Keith Lycaon. He will be facing the recent Filipino national champion, Antonio Guevara, a match that will decide Ippo's fate going forward as a boxer.

Story Arcs

Trivia

In the French manga licensed version, the publishers named this saga and along previous saga's last arc, as "In the Shadow of the Champion Arc", ("Dans l'ombre du champion").
This is the largest saga in the series to date.