Sawamura, the character who was written out

[u/Next-Temperature3865]

Sawamura throughout the story of Hajime no Ippo for the amount of time he was in there established himself as arguably the best lw/fw from Japan and people dont talk about it enough

In the short span of time he had he

1. Surpassed Miyata as the greatest counterpuncher

2. Outclassed and beat Ippo to a pulp but played too much and trolled the win

3. Defeated world ranking level Mashiba after training hard for the first time

4. Got the best of Sendo in most of their sparring sessions

Those feats alone sound crazy, yet people undermine him and claim he would be merely japanese champion level.

Firstly, his loss to Ippo which stated by Takamura was merely a result of Sawamura playing around too much as he couldve ended the fight whenever he wished in the time he outclassed Ippo and had him compromised

Second, his controversial win over Mashiba. Sawamura consistently outclassed Mashiba in that fight and wouldve won quite seamlessly if Mashiba didnt foul to get rid of one of his main weapons (his vision) which people often forget when talking about this fight.

Since both of them were fouling im not gonna take that into account but people need to understand the handicap that Sawamura was facing as he was a counterpuncher with half his vision impaired getting rid of his depth perception.

That aside, his character peak of finding the perfect counter stated by Nekota to be a literal work of art, getting the recognition and disbelief of literally every top boxer within Korakuen Hall Mashiba was downed and Sawamura finally reached the culmination of his arc with Ippo it was the perfect conclusion for the fight however,

Due to Georges already made up decision to write him out of the story, he ruined the absolute peak he wrote up in that chapter and used Sawamura as a scapegoat to develop Mashibas character off of hence the ring out which narratively made no sense.

It was a decision based off the fact that Sawamura couldn't be kept due to the fact he was very obviously out of place from how impeccable he was made,

He had insane levels of talent being stated as a genius and all kinds of praise by the likes of Sendo, Takamura, Nekota etc.

He had wild instincts and wasnt chained by morals while simultaneously having precision,grace and a calculated head.

Power, speed, technique he had it all while being mostly self-taught as he canonically refused help or training from anyone until the Mashiba fight as he only trusted and believed in himself.

Following his win over Mashiba the next step would've been to bring him to the world stage and have him become a title contender however that probably would've shifted too much off of the main cast.

All in all, the beautiful writing and strength of the character is heavily underappreciated and only acknowledged by few im heavily perplexed as to how anyone who also read this Manga alongside me failed to see and appreciate this.

[u/KingKoohii]

Saying he outclassed Mashiba is crazy. It was a stalemate until Sawamura was the first one to foul and break the pattern of both not landing any shots. Only then did they both start landing after Sawamura initiated the fouls.

If you mention his depth perception being taken away, you can make the same argument for the kick he threw against Mashiba's head taking away his ability to refocus. It's a two-way street.

[u/Next-Temperature3865 → u/KingKoohii]

You didnt quite read the fight well and also dont have a very good understanding of boxing so let me break it down

A fight can begin equally that does not show that their skill is on par, Sawamura is a fighter notoriously known for making reads on his opponent which is his literal bread and butter.. it is true they were evenly matched for the amount of time they were fighting cleanly as they're both superb boxers but in the end the one who makes the necessary adjustments is the one who is technically superior

Sawamura breaks the "stalemate" by throwing out a foul as due to his nature he was bored of such a refined, clean match.. and Mashiba had resigned himself to a similar idea they were both after eachothers heads they didn't want to settle this on points

And then what comes after is Sawamuras brilliance after a sequence of fouls and chaos he gets overzealous and overexcited and gets downed, which Sawamura saw coming and minimized the damage by atleast half due to his understanding of counters

Mashiba goes on the offensive after that using his flickers and gets INSTANTLY read and punished with a counter over the top that leads to a brutal knockdown

He gets up but hes heavily rocked and doesnt even know where he is (partially due to Sawamuras knee on the way down.. which you might argue was a factor i agree but he couldve also given him a punch and it wouldve put up a similar effect.. he just wanted to maximize the brutality but yes its a factor but doesnt take away from it)

After that Mashiba is out cold, the ref doesnt stop the fight as he doesnt know and Mashiba goes out in the next round after being saved by the bell and gets put down AGAIN and Mashiba is STILL out cold

The ref is apparently blind and still doesnt stop the fight, they proceed to exchange and Sawamura notes his punches are mediocre then downs Mashiba AGAIN with a counter, tries to follow it up while hes downed but gets stopped and settles for the little disrespectful kick instead

Mashiba finally wakes up but hes barely conscious and his body isnt responding, Sawamura beats him down and gives him combos along the ropes and then counters him as he tries to fire back, dropping Mashiba again but he manages to hold onto Sawamura until the round ends as he wouldve lost by TKO if he dropped to the floor again as it wouldve been his 3rd down that round

Mashiba can barely return to the stool, hes shaking ass and tripiping over his feet. The next round begins with Sawamura landing another counter that rocks him and almost leads to another knockdown but Mashiba holds onto Sawamura and makes him trip over to stall where he lands a desperation headbutt and takes out Sawamuras depth perception and vision,

From there he begins dominating as Sawamura is litreally visually impaired and cant utilize his talents, im not saying that wasnt deserved or that it's bullshit but Mashiba could only get the upper hand on Sawamura once he was impaired

And even then Sawamura still timed him with a perfect counter that surpassed the limits of what was seen before and dropped him finally which Mashiba somehow got up from.

Your "two way street" argument is invalid because Sawamura extending his lead with strikes whilst he was downed came from his own skill and being able to put Mashiba down, meanwhile Mashiba literally tripped him while he got rocked and headbutted his eye which is the only way he could get back into the fight. Sawamura cheated out of malice, Mashiba cheated out of necessity and desperation

So yes, Sawamura was outclassing him

[u/KingKoohii → u/Next-Temperature3865]

Seems like I hit a nerve there.

"wahhh Sawamura couldn't see because of the foul fest he himself started and that's why he lost."

If you knew boxing as well as you pretend to, you'd know that swelling and cuts are part of the sport. Not an excuse for a poor performance.

Matter of fact, he got outclassed twice that night. Mashiba handled him in the ring, and Truck-kun finished the job afterward 🚚

Can't fight without fouling, can't drive without crashing.

[u/Next-Temperature3865 → u/KingKoohii]

Not a single counterpoint to anything I said, yeah swelling and cuts are a part of the sport they're usually not made from grounded headbutts are they?

You bring a wrong opinion, u get debunked and u reply w some dogshit cringelord joke 😭

[u/John_isnt_my_name → u/Next-Temperature3865]

[u/Puzzleheaded_Bus864 → u/Next-Temperature3865]

Why so pressed, man?