#HajimenoIppo ch1044-1045: Miyata showing sound insight... #manga 

The narrative I expected seems to be holding true. Gonzalez is a
natural infighter and tough guy who has mastered another more refined
style. And as his coach suspects, he's slowly "devolving" into his
old form while joyously contending with Ippo. Gonzalez thinks he's
drawing Ippo into false hope and a trap, and he may very well be
right. But slowly, we're seeing Gonzalez get dragged into Ippo's
world. As Miyata has pointed out, it happens to EVERYONE who fights
Ippo. EVERYONE. No matter the plan, the skill or the environment,
Ippo's style turns him into a colossus in the ring, a slow moving,
unavoidable, near unstoppable force of nature that crushes all he
faces with time and persistence.

The trick used to be to find a crack in Ippos's game and exploit it
for big damage and eventually a win. Wearing Ippo down before he
wears you down and figures you out. But as Miyata has pointed out,
Ippo has been molded so solidly by Coach Kamogawa, that that option
hasn't been viable, nor has it worked in a very long time. Ippo's
solid defense was actually weakened by his best offensive weapon, the
Dempsey Roll. And this was true until he honed it against outstanding
counterpunchers and intense training. The only real gaping weakness
Ippo has now is his lack of worldly experience. It's what gave him
his first loss, it's what has always put him on the ropes since he
challenged the world. The traditional stuff, like working his way in
on out-boxers, or avoiding major damage against those infighters is
old hat and mastered. It's the world above the clouds that he now
lives in that he must adjust towards. And this is the perfect fight
to do it.

Manga31.jpg

These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/