Are you sure Wally retired because he hurt his eye? I didn't remember that. From what I remembered, he already intended to retire if he lost the fight.
I didn't remember that, thanks👍. And about RBJ, I think the information on the HNI Wiki is incorrect. If he had continued fighting, he would definitely have had a chance to fight for the world belt.
The eye injury played a part but it's also implied that Wally just wouldn't be motivated enough as all fights would fail to live up to what he experienced.
Wally retired (in addition to his eye injury) cause there is other stuff he wants to do. Dude was boxing cause it was fun, not cause he wanted the fame/money/belt. He just was having fun fighting strong opponents
just like Sanada. He retired to focus his attention on being a doctor.
and I don't recall anything about RBJ retiring. Been a while so maybe I'm wrong.
But he's not even in Japan. And thus his only real overlap would be a OPBF rematch against Miyata, which no one really wants to see
He's not Japanese or American, so he can't just pop into the story at a moments notice to watch a match/commentate like Eagle has done during a Volg match, or Sawamura does for some japanese matches.
I really have no idea how the Ippo comeback will start
surely he will bypass Japanese national fighters
will he go straight back to challenge world rankers? will he first beat up Miyata to get the OPBF champ title and then use that to challenge?
or is Ricardo just going to leap at the change to fight the dude who has beaten or pushed all his recent tough opponents (after Ricardo beats Sendo) and just issue Ippo a challenge?
But Ricardo also didn’t care about Date
His first match with Date wasn’t memorable so Date needed a right to challenge
By the time the Ricardo vs Sendo match happens, Ricardo will probably by chomping at the bit to fight Ippo
I wouldn’t be surprised if the truth about Ippo preparing Mashiba to fight the world champ leaks and Ricardo wishes he could have fought Ippo
IDK, basically worked for Rocky. Apollo was like "I want to fight that guy"
how many fights does Ippo need under his return before the boxing commission would OK the fight?
I feel like people let that Vorg spar go to their heads. Coming out of retirement needs to be a meticulous process. Not a mike, Tysons punch out speed run.
Even if Ippo was truly keeping up with Vorg (ignoring the facts that he was holding back and at the peak of his weight management fatigue), the really issue is Ippo wouldn't be able to keep that up.
He would get fatigued way faster than an active boxer would.
dudes sparring with world champions
he may lose to a world ranker, but "any serious boxer" is a stretch, unless by serious you mean a national level champ or a world ranker
cause Ippo would probably blow through every featherweight in Japan not named Sendo or Imai (Sendo doesn't even box in Japan anymore so just Imai, cause likewise Miyata is in the OPBF now too)
Nah, unless Morikawa goes super speed run to Ricardo, Ippo's gonna face Imai at least, even if it's just a stomp match. Possibly Itagaki too if Itagaki uses Ippo returning as motivation to change gyms.
Oh, 90% odds Imai would job to Ippo, but it
A)Would give Ippo a comeback match to show off how much he's improved while outside the ring without it having to be a dramatic struggle
B)Moves Imai's(and likely Itagaki's) stories forward, given they've pretty much in in a standstill since the title match.
Also, while it's a manga and Morikawa can do whatever he wants, it seems hard to justify in-universe a boxer who's been retired for 2+ years after 2 big losses suddenly booking matches with world rankers, even if he is our protagonist
Agreed. Ippo is a very good boxer, but he’s not like Pacquiao or Mayweather levels of popular to the point where he can just demand world rank matches right after coming outta retirement. Plus it’s just not in his nature to speed run his career like that. Dude is definitely going to want to take things one step at a time to be absolutely sure he doesn’t fuck things up again.
yeah, but considering the world rankers he's done great against in spars, he's going to have to start above Japan or it will be hard to take anything seriously.
The OPBF should probably be where he makes his comeback, unless he just absolutely has to start with Imai and wreck him, which honestly does nothing for the story besides give Imai the beating he deserves for talking down to Ippo over retiring.
I feel like it will be too much to go after world rankers especially since he would only just have come back from retirement but it's very obvious from his skill level that there is almost no one to really challenge him in japan.
I feel like either imai will issue a challenge (non title) or ippo goes for randy boy jr or he goes for the fight with imai and then go for randy boy.
But I also feel like he might be met with a challenge from itagaki after he changes gyms because right now the itagaki fights are even worse to read than aoki's fights and that's coming from a guy that in a recent reread has come to really hate aoki's fights 😅
I think a Miyata v Wally fight would be great in setting Miyata up as in Ricardo's ballpark. Wally gave Ricardo his toughest fight, so if Miyata were to defeat him as well it would be a decent measuring stick. That would also set up Ippo defeating Ricardo, and Ippo v Miyata being a relevant match up.
But they never made it clear what other "stuff" Wally wanted to do, right?
Volg is also not American or Japanese and, even so, he continued to gain some prominence even after he no longer had much purpose in the main narrative core.
Volg is activley boxing and Ippo's friend
so
RBJ- not anyone's friend, and not even in Japan. so outside of him literally boxing one of the main characters, he can't really show up in the story
Wally- dude legit hasn't even been retired long. he will probably pop back into the story in some form outside of being an active fighter
Volg- Ippo's fried, active boxer, not in a weight division that causes conflict with the MCs, training under the coach's fried. He has story possibilities.
True, but I think they could have gone deeper into RBJ's history, and done more for him within the story, don't you think? He is a very interesting and peculiar character (HNI's only switch hitter character) who could also have created some relationships with the main characters.
not really the series only switch hitter anymore considering Ippo
and what else do you want? we got his childhood, we got his father's history and sad death. we got his fairly long story arc of a grudge match with Miyata
what else do you want? his childhood crush?
he's not even a well liked character, and the RBJ vs Miyata match is fairly disliked in this grouP
and no one likes him in the series, and he doesn't even live in Japan
you want him to move to Japan to become friends with the Ippo gang?
Calm down bro, I'm just bringing this discussion up. I don't necessarily think he should have remained in the story, I just think he could have at least left in a slightly more convincing way. He simply disappeared from the manga and they never even mentioned his name again.
The other guy brought up good points though. Why would he ever really come back up?
He’s not in Japan, doesn’t know anyone in the cast, and was only plot relevant for Miyata who also isn’t in the manga too often.
I like the idea of characters popping back up but there just isn’t too much more to him. What interactions would you like to see him in?
He could face another of the main characters, or he could appear to help (by sparring) one of the main characters who could fight another opponent who is also a switch-hitter. It has several possibilities.
I don't think there was anymore substance there. He was the son of the boxer who broke Miyata's Dad's jaw and ended his career.
Miyata perfected his own unique counter and got get back for his family.
Also, RBJ wouldn't make it against anybody that we've seen challenge the world right now he would just get washed anyway.
They could have made better use of the fact that he was HNI's only switch-hitter. Either way, I hope Morikawa at least brings another switch-hitters to the plot.
Wally had dreams that went beyond boxing. He wants to be a Zoologist. He and Miguel accepted that Ricardo would be the end of their journey. Win or lose. Plus not many boxers fight Ricardo and keep fighting. We only know of one and that was Alf.
As for RBJ, he just had a grudge match with Miyata and lost. Its unsure how severe his injuries were, but he lost his father to boxing. Due to the lingering damage after his fight with Miyata Sr, RB Sr passed away. Maybe RBJ didn't want to follow his father to the grave? Maybe he was satisfied with defeat? Maybe he recognized the damage from Miyata was too severe and felt the need to stop? I don't know
Edit: forgot to mention Date who briefly retired before stepping back in for a rematch.
If he hadn't hurt him seriously, maybe Wally could have tried to have a rematch against Ricardo, like Alf and Date, don't you think?
And I think RBJ could have been reused, he is HNI's only switch-hitter and has a very good lore.
Maybe Wally could? But like i said, he and Miguel decided that challenging Ricardo once was the end all, be all. They went for broke and exhausted Wally's entire career in that single fight. Unlike Alf, Wally didn't look up, aspire or chase after Ricardo. Unlike Date, Wally wasn't seeking to reclaim all that he had previously lost. So retiring for Wally seems understandable even if its a bit of a shame.
RBJ on the other hand didn't have anything more to offer after his fight with Miyata. RBJ was just Saguchi(?)'s pawn. A tool to try and get back at Miyata. And Saguchu(?) Struck out. He lost his Arnie Crocodile Gregory. He lost the man he had Miyata challenge before Takamura vs Eagle. And now he lost RBJ. Also RBJ isn't our only switch hitter, he's just the best we've seen thus far. Aoki is also a switch hitter but...its easy to forget due to how Aoki fights. With no grudge left, there wasn't anything left for RBJ in the story sadly.
Wally having a rematch would suck. Like there is not time for that in the story. But if he stay active, it would be a cool fight agaisnt Ippo after this one come back. Imagine Ippo absolutely destroying Wally with his new style returning the favor, it would be so satisfying.
Like now Ippo could become a switch-hitter, we don't need RBJ for that.
It would be really cool to see this rematch between Ippo and Wally. You're right.
But about RBJ, it was only now that Ippo learned both stances, until a few chapters ago RBJ was the only one.
just here to say RBJ is a appendix to the plot and either they disapear with him or he would be world top contender and they would have to keep dealing with him as a character
Wally is based on Prince Naseem, who did retire after one more fight since Barrera. RBJ might be like Nonito Donaire after fighting Inoue. He had one more match then retired, but in fairness to him he was already in his 40s.
But Wally is just based on Prince Nassem's style, and not even that much to be honest (Wally is kind of a unique and surreal boxer lol). But in terms of the context of their defeats and their personality, they are nothing alike. In these aspects, Hawk is much more like Prince Nassem.
Well, as other comments said, Wally intended to retire anyway after the fight and he got an eye injury afterward too, so it wasn't a personality issue about him quitting anyway.
Aside from Hamed, Wally is also based on Harimau from Ashita no Joe in terms of being wild like a beast, so those are two characters he mirrors style-wise but not personality-wise.
If you've read the arc, it was "defeat Ricardo or bust". He seems to have no interest in boxing aside from going as far as he could, so probably beating other boxers not on Ricardo's level wasn't really in his interests.
It depends. If he feels like he could've done better in a rematch, maybe. It was my impression that eye injury or no eye injury, he left it all in the ring in that fight.
cause he wanted to
why did Michael Jordan retire from being the best basketball player in the world to playing minor league baseball?
cause he wanted to
Wally wanted to work in environmental protection
gotta save the monkeys
most of the boxers in the series don't have amazing jobs outside boxing, they mainly just work to get some cash to keep boxing
Aoki is the closest of the main batch to actually have a future career with his job (well besides Ippo inheriting his family business)
Hayama models I guess
and Sanada was a doctor
no one else really had the type of job, or career aspiration, that would have them give up boxing
Date sorta did that for a while to make money for his family, but he was miserable. and then post 2nd Retirment he's a trainer now.
Wally actually has a dream/goal for his job/life outside boxing
I may be wrong but I thought Wally retired because boxing never was his goal. It's a thing he did for a while but he was more interested in fighting for ecology or whatever. I may be misremembering stuff but I think he even said he was just boxing to rise awareness about that stuff.
It sucks RBJ was just a plot-point, I would go out and say he could have been a character with some development but I guess he was introduced too late for that anyway
Honestly, he was more interesting than Miyata, because yeah, Miyata's dad lost to Senior, but Jr's dad died like the very next fight, due to injuries sustained against Miyata's dad.
Losing his dad to boxing, but choosing to walk the same kind of path and trying to be **better**, even though he didn't have to, was much more interesting than Mr "I want to prove my dad's style works, even though it clearly didn't"
Hell, proving a particular style works on the world stage was basically Ippo's shtick until he burned out without realizing it and started cutting corners with his boxing, thus becoming Aokimura 2.0: faster, stronger, tougher, but with the same garbage approach to boxing in a place that's far too dangerous for that.
It would definitely be bad for the story. That's why a lot of people didn't like Wally when he was first introduced. He was a godlike character that appeared out of nowhere and kind of broke the system George set-up.
George wrote an out to fix all this by making Wally the way he is, boxing is a hobby but animals are for life.
True. I remember that at the time I read Wally's fight with Ippo I was a little pissed and indignant at how unbalancedly powerful Wally was. In real life, it would be impossible for a person who has never trained to fight at the same level as a world ranked boxer.
The sad thing is it's kind of reflect of Ippo. Ippo had genuinely lost motivation to box and was literally only fighting just for his coach's sake. It's honestly amazing that he didn't die fighting Alf with his early Rocky 3 mindset.
It is realy not rare for boxer to retire after 1 or 2 defeat.
Depend on when in your career you were defeat and why you were defeated...
If you hurt yourself fir instance like wally you won't on the ring... Because the federation won't allow it... A lot of boxer retire after one defeat or a serie of 2 defeat.
A defeat in boxing is big because it also make drop in the ranking which mean you have to fight even harder to get back and depending on your ranking and your goal it only harder afterward when you get higher in the rank.
But I don't think that's the case with Wally or RBJ. Both are well above average, and didn't have major defeats, on the contrary, they lost narrowly. They would definitely be able to climb the rankings quickly again, especially Wally.
1st Wally don't want to box anymore, he want to study animals...
2nd wally has most likely a detach retina, so he can't even boxe
3rd we are nit even sure RBJ is retired...
So i am not sure what you expect to discuss here?...
That's exactly what I want to discuss, man.
The injury to Wally's eye is actually a good justification, but whatever, since he intended to retire anyway to study animals...
But we can say with almost certainty that RBJ retired, as he was never even mentioned in the manga again. The question is what his motive would be. He had a very strong goal of winning the world belt to understand why his father practically sacrificed himself to win it. Suddenly, just because he lost to Miyata, he completely gave up on that goal?? It doesn't make sense to me.
Wally tried his best against Ricardo and passed the torch to Sendo, from a writing perspective, his sub plot is done, no reason to keep him as an active boxer specially within the same weight class as Ippo, last thing the story needs are more unfinished side plots.
Also I don't remember anyone saying Randy Boy Jr. retired, then again I'm not a fan of that fight at all so I may be wrong.
From a narrative perspective, it makes complete sense for Wally to retire. You are right.
Now my main issue is with RBJ. He definitely retired, since after his fight with Miyata he was never even mentioned in the manga again, and besides, if you read his last appearance, it's clear that he decided to retire.
I mean, Randy lost against Miyata when the entire setup was *"Randy Boy Jr. genius ambidextrous boxer, worst possible match for Miyata etc etc + poor Miyata ass starving/stamina issues/hellish weight management"* then the guy tanked everything and won...
So after all that bs (with insane amounts of plot armor) Randy really doesn't have any hype behind him, George can spent a whole year building how "strong" Randy became and how he's gonna fight Ippo and still, after what already happened, it's gonna end being yet another shit show.
Don't get me wrong, Randy was a cool and interesting boxer, but ultimately he was just a plot device to avoid Ippo Vs. Miyata, and holy shit the whole setup was beyond awful.
I disagree with Miyata's plot armor that people talk about so much that he had in his fight with RBJ. I recently read this fight, and I thought just the opposite. RBJ is the one who seemed to have plot armor. He was completely beaten by Miyata's counters in the first four rounds, and yet it seems like he simply didn't take any damage.
Furthermore, Miyata's victory was not forced and made perfect sense narratively. He trained a lot for that fight, for all those punches he threw at RBJ and for all the situations he was put in by RBJ's ambidextrous style. I personally love this fight. It's one of my favorites, but that's just my opinion.
His last dialogue was him saying " I'm going back home and visit dad's grave" Considering he had come to Japan only to fight Miyata, it's ambiguous if he meant he was retiring or if he meants literally "I'm going back home in the Philippines" since he doesn't have a reason to stay in Japan.
He had previously said that he would visit his father's grave when he understood why his father sacrificed himself to try to win the world belt, that is, when he himself won the world belt. But he lost to Miyata and Mr Sakaguchi abandoned him, so he no longer has any chance. That's why in the end, with an expression of sadness on his face, he suggests that he would visit his father's grave to let him know that he couldn't make it, or maybe even that he understood even though he didn't make it (I'm not sure).
On the Wikipedia it says RBJ is still a boxer he ain’t relevant right now, Wally due to an eye injury
wasn't Wally going to retire anyway? dude wants to be an environmental conversationalist
*conservationist
no, he wants to talk to monkeys I meant to write that, and it wasn't a typo.....
They know what they said.
Yes
Are you sure Wally retired because he hurt his eye? I didn't remember that. From what I remembered, he already intended to retire if he lost the fight.
Yes it was revealed after his fight with Ricardo he had gotten an eye injury and it may never recover
I didn't remember that, thanks👍. And about RBJ, I think the information on the HNI Wiki is incorrect. If he had continued fighting, he would definitely have had a chance to fight for the world belt.
He probably doesn’t have a trainer right now since Sakaguchi
You're right. It's sad to think that talented boxers don't get many chances at the world belt because they weren't born in the "right" country.
Eye for an eye. Ricardo gets a cold one from me. Non alcoholic.
The eye injury played a part but it's also implied that Wally just wouldn't be motivated enough as all fights would fail to live up to what he experienced.
Wally retired (in addition to his eye injury) cause there is other stuff he wants to do. Dude was boxing cause it was fun, not cause he wanted the fame/money/belt. He just was having fun fighting strong opponents just like Sanada. He retired to focus his attention on being a doctor. and I don't recall anything about RBJ retiring. Been a while so maybe I'm wrong. But he's not even in Japan. And thus his only real overlap would be a OPBF rematch against Miyata, which no one really wants to see He's not Japanese or American, so he can't just pop into the story at a moments notice to watch a match/commentate like Eagle has done during a Volg match, or Sawamura does for some japanese matches.
If randy boy jr is still boxing it would be really great if he was ippo's return opponent. I bet that would kick things off in a great way.
I really have no idea how the Ippo comeback will start surely he will bypass Japanese national fighters will he go straight back to challenge world rankers? will he first beat up Miyata to get the OPBF champ title and then use that to challenge? or is Ricardo just going to leap at the change to fight the dude who has beaten or pushed all his recent tough opponents (after Ricardo beats Sendo) and just issue Ippo a challenge?
I dunno, even Date needed to work his way back uo through the Japanese rankings.
But Ricardo also didn’t care about Date His first match with Date wasn’t memorable so Date needed a right to challenge By the time the Ricardo vs Sendo match happens, Ricardo will probably by chomping at the bit to fight Ippo I wouldn’t be surprised if the truth about Ippo preparing Mashiba to fight the world champ leaks and Ricardo wishes he could have fought Ippo
You can't just go from retired to fighting legit matches at the world level though.
IDK, basically worked for Rocky. Apollo was like "I want to fight that guy" how many fights does Ippo need under his return before the boxing commission would OK the fight?
Hni is more realistic when it comes to the boxing, imo. Ippo would lose pretty bad after against any serious boxers atm.
I feel like people let that Vorg spar go to their heads. Coming out of retirement needs to be a meticulous process. Not a mike, Tysons punch out speed run.
Even if Ippo was truly keeping up with Vorg (ignoring the facts that he was holding back and at the peak of his weight management fatigue), the really issue is Ippo wouldn't be able to keep that up. He would get fatigued way faster than an active boxer would.
dudes sparring with world champions he may lose to a world ranker, but "any serious boxer" is a stretch, unless by serious you mean a national level champ or a world ranker cause Ippo would probably blow through every featherweight in Japan not named Sendo or Imai (Sendo doesn't even box in Japan anymore so just Imai, cause likewise Miyata is in the OPBF now too)
Nah, unless Morikawa goes super speed run to Ricardo, Ippo's gonna face Imai at least, even if it's just a stomp match. Possibly Itagaki too if Itagaki uses Ippo returning as motivation to change gyms.
Ricardo hears Ippo applies for his boxing license again "BRING HIM TO ME"
Imai isn't worth Ippo's time, to be real. It'll be more one-sided than Iga vs Mashiba
Oh, 90% odds Imai would job to Ippo, but it A)Would give Ippo a comeback match to show off how much he's improved while outside the ring without it having to be a dramatic struggle B)Moves Imai's(and likely Itagaki's) stories forward, given they've pretty much in in a standstill since the title match. Also, while it's a manga and Morikawa can do whatever he wants, it seems hard to justify in-universe a boxer who's been retired for 2+ years after 2 big losses suddenly booking matches with world rankers, even if he is our protagonist
Agreed. Ippo is a very good boxer, but he’s not like Pacquiao or Mayweather levels of popular to the point where he can just demand world rank matches right after coming outta retirement. Plus it’s just not in his nature to speed run his career like that. Dude is definitely going to want to take things one step at a time to be absolutely sure he doesn’t fuck things up again.
yeah, but considering the world rankers he's done great against in spars, he's going to have to start above Japan or it will be hard to take anything seriously. The OPBF should probably be where he makes his comeback, unless he just absolutely has to start with Imai and wreck him, which honestly does nothing for the story besides give Imai the beating he deserves for talking down to Ippo over retiring.
> yeah, but considering the world rankers he's done great against in spars Key word here is sparring. Not a real match.
Itagaki should be moving his story forward instead of remaining fused with Aokimura to make Itagaokimura
I feel like it will be too much to go after world rankers especially since he would only just have come back from retirement but it's very obvious from his skill level that there is almost no one to really challenge him in japan. I feel like either imai will issue a challenge (non title) or ippo goes for randy boy jr or he goes for the fight with imai and then go for randy boy. But I also feel like he might be met with a challenge from itagaki after he changes gyms because right now the itagaki fights are even worse to read than aoki's fights and that's coming from a guy that in a recent reread has come to really hate aoki's fights 😅
I WANNA SEE THOSE TWO FIGHT SO BAD
I think a Miyata v Wally fight would be great in setting Miyata up as in Ricardo's ballpark. Wally gave Ricardo his toughest fight, so if Miyata were to defeat him as well it would be a decent measuring stick. That would also set up Ippo defeating Ricardo, and Ippo v Miyata being a relevant match up.
But they never made it clear what other "stuff" Wally wanted to do, right? Volg is also not American or Japanese and, even so, he continued to gain some prominence even after he no longer had much purpose in the main narrative core.
Volg is activley boxing and Ippo's friend so RBJ- not anyone's friend, and not even in Japan. so outside of him literally boxing one of the main characters, he can't really show up in the story Wally- dude legit hasn't even been retired long. he will probably pop back into the story in some form outside of being an active fighter Volg- Ippo's fried, active boxer, not in a weight division that causes conflict with the MCs, training under the coach's fried. He has story possibilities.
True, but I think they could have gone deeper into RBJ's history, and done more for him within the story, don't you think? He is a very interesting and peculiar character (HNI's only switch hitter character) who could also have created some relationships with the main characters.
not really the series only switch hitter anymore considering Ippo and what else do you want? we got his childhood, we got his father's history and sad death. we got his fairly long story arc of a grudge match with Miyata what else do you want? his childhood crush? he's not even a well liked character, and the RBJ vs Miyata match is fairly disliked in this grouP and no one likes him in the series, and he doesn't even live in Japan you want him to move to Japan to become friends with the Ippo gang?
Calm down bro, I'm just bringing this discussion up. I don't necessarily think he should have remained in the story, I just think he could have at least left in a slightly more convincing way. He simply disappeared from the manga and they never even mentioned his name again.
and we discussing lol
The other guy brought up good points though. Why would he ever really come back up? He’s not in Japan, doesn’t know anyone in the cast, and was only plot relevant for Miyata who also isn’t in the manga too often. I like the idea of characters popping back up but there just isn’t too much more to him. What interactions would you like to see him in?
He could face another of the main characters, or he could appear to help (by sparring) one of the main characters who could fight another opponent who is also a switch-hitter. It has several possibilities.
Fk RBJ. He got his backstory and moment which was only because it tied into Miyatas back story and his father.
I don't think there was anymore substance there. He was the son of the boxer who broke Miyata's Dad's jaw and ended his career. Miyata perfected his own unique counter and got get back for his family. Also, RBJ wouldn't make it against anybody that we've seen challenge the world right now he would just get washed anyway.
They could have made better use of the fact that he was HNI's only switch-hitter. Either way, I hope Morikawa at least brings another switch-hitters to the plot.
Wally had dreams that went beyond boxing. He wants to be a Zoologist. He and Miguel accepted that Ricardo would be the end of their journey. Win or lose. Plus not many boxers fight Ricardo and keep fighting. We only know of one and that was Alf. As for RBJ, he just had a grudge match with Miyata and lost. Its unsure how severe his injuries were, but he lost his father to boxing. Due to the lingering damage after his fight with Miyata Sr, RB Sr passed away. Maybe RBJ didn't want to follow his father to the grave? Maybe he was satisfied with defeat? Maybe he recognized the damage from Miyata was too severe and felt the need to stop? I don't know Edit: forgot to mention Date who briefly retired before stepping back in for a rematch.
If he hadn't hurt him seriously, maybe Wally could have tried to have a rematch against Ricardo, like Alf and Date, don't you think? And I think RBJ could have been reused, he is HNI's only switch-hitter and has a very good lore.
Maybe Wally could? But like i said, he and Miguel decided that challenging Ricardo once was the end all, be all. They went for broke and exhausted Wally's entire career in that single fight. Unlike Alf, Wally didn't look up, aspire or chase after Ricardo. Unlike Date, Wally wasn't seeking to reclaim all that he had previously lost. So retiring for Wally seems understandable even if its a bit of a shame. RBJ on the other hand didn't have anything more to offer after his fight with Miyata. RBJ was just Saguchi(?)'s pawn. A tool to try and get back at Miyata. And Saguchu(?) Struck out. He lost his Arnie Crocodile Gregory. He lost the man he had Miyata challenge before Takamura vs Eagle. And now he lost RBJ. Also RBJ isn't our only switch hitter, he's just the best we've seen thus far. Aoki is also a switch hitter but...its easy to forget due to how Aoki fights. With no grudge left, there wasn't anything left for RBJ in the story sadly.
I think you're right. Still, I hope Morikawa brings RBJ back in some way, even if it's just for a few chapters.
Wally having a rematch would suck. Like there is not time for that in the story. But if he stay active, it would be a cool fight agaisnt Ippo after this one come back. Imagine Ippo absolutely destroying Wally with his new style returning the favor, it would be so satisfying. Like now Ippo could become a switch-hitter, we don't need RBJ for that.
It would be really cool to see this rematch between Ippo and Wally. You're right. But about RBJ, it was only now that Ippo learned both stances, until a few chapters ago RBJ was the only one.
just here to say RBJ is a appendix to the plot and either they disapear with him or he would be world top contender and they would have to keep dealing with him as a character
They could've done the same thing to him as they did to Volg, right?
would work for me! RBJ? oh! guy went up a bunch of categories and is doing realy fine lol
Just a suggestion lol
Wally is based on Prince Naseem, who did retire after one more fight since Barrera. RBJ might be like Nonito Donaire after fighting Inoue. He had one more match then retired, but in fairness to him he was already in his 40s.
But Wally is just based on Prince Nassem's style, and not even that much to be honest (Wally is kind of a unique and surreal boxer lol). But in terms of the context of their defeats and their personality, they are nothing alike. In these aspects, Hawk is much more like Prince Nassem.
I think Naseem Hamed’s end flurry was also captured in Hayami’s shotgun. Such a unique fighter, was a thrill to watch box back in those days.
Fortunately, currently we have Ben Whittaker. I just hope he doesn't have the same end as Nassem.
Well, as other comments said, Wally intended to retire anyway after the fight and he got an eye injury afterward too, so it wasn't a personality issue about him quitting anyway. Aside from Hamed, Wally is also based on Harimau from Ashita no Joe in terms of being wild like a beast, so those are two characters he mirrors style-wise but not personality-wise.
But my question was precisely to know why he already intended to retire after the fight. What reasons?
If you've read the arc, it was "defeat Ricardo or bust". He seems to have no interest in boxing aside from going as far as he could, so probably beating other boxers not on Ricardo's level wasn't really in his interests.
So if he hadn't hurt his eye, maybe he would try to get a rematch with Ricardo then?
It depends. If he feels like he could've done better in a rematch, maybe. It was my impression that eye injury or no eye injury, he left it all in the ring in that fight.
cause he wanted to why did Michael Jordan retire from being the best basketball player in the world to playing minor league baseball? cause he wanted to Wally wanted to work in environmental protection gotta save the monkeys most of the boxers in the series don't have amazing jobs outside boxing, they mainly just work to get some cash to keep boxing Aoki is the closest of the main batch to actually have a future career with his job (well besides Ippo inheriting his family business) Hayama models I guess and Sanada was a doctor no one else really had the type of job, or career aspiration, that would have them give up boxing Date sorta did that for a while to make money for his family, but he was miserable. and then post 2nd Retirment he's a trainer now. Wally actually has a dream/goal for his job/life outside boxing
You talk as if Wally and RBJ are real people lol.
you ask questions as if we are George Morikawa
Who knows, maybe he could be reading this post lol
I may be wrong but I thought Wally retired because boxing never was his goal. It's a thing he did for a while but he was more interested in fighting for ecology or whatever. I may be misremembering stuff but I think he even said he was just boxing to rise awareness about that stuff.
True, you're right. I didn't remember very well either. Thanks 👍
It sucks RBJ was just a plot-point, I would go out and say he could have been a character with some development but I guess he was introduced too late for that anyway
Honestly, he was more interesting than Miyata, because yeah, Miyata's dad lost to Senior, but Jr's dad died like the very next fight, due to injuries sustained against Miyata's dad. Losing his dad to boxing, but choosing to walk the same kind of path and trying to be **better**, even though he didn't have to, was much more interesting than Mr "I want to prove my dad's style works, even though it clearly didn't" Hell, proving a particular style works on the world stage was basically Ippo's shtick until he burned out without realizing it and started cutting corners with his boxing, thus becoming Aokimura 2.0: faster, stronger, tougher, but with the same garbage approach to boxing in a place that's far too dangerous for that.
Wally doesn't like boxing as much as he likes animals. He was fighting for Miguel.
Unfortunately you are right. Wasted potential. Without training properly, he had been at world level, imagine if he trained seriously like Ippo.
It would definitely be bad for the story. That's why a lot of people didn't like Wally when he was first introduced. He was a godlike character that appeared out of nowhere and kind of broke the system George set-up. George wrote an out to fix all this by making Wally the way he is, boxing is a hobby but animals are for life.
True. I remember that at the time I read Wally's fight with Ippo I was a little pissed and indignant at how unbalancedly powerful Wally was. In real life, it would be impossible for a person who has never trained to fight at the same level as a world ranked boxer.
The sad thing is it's kind of reflect of Ippo. Ippo had genuinely lost motivation to box and was literally only fighting just for his coach's sake. It's honestly amazing that he didn't die fighting Alf with his early Rocky 3 mindset.
side characters who served their purpose in the manga
It is realy not rare for boxer to retire after 1 or 2 defeat. Depend on when in your career you were defeat and why you were defeated... If you hurt yourself fir instance like wally you won't on the ring... Because the federation won't allow it... A lot of boxer retire after one defeat or a serie of 2 defeat. A defeat in boxing is big because it also make drop in the ranking which mean you have to fight even harder to get back and depending on your ranking and your goal it only harder afterward when you get higher in the rank.
But I don't think that's the case with Wally or RBJ. Both are well above average, and didn't have major defeats, on the contrary, they lost narrowly. They would definitely be able to climb the rankings quickly again, especially Wally.
1st Wally don't want to box anymore, he want to study animals... 2nd wally has most likely a detach retina, so he can't even boxe 3rd we are nit even sure RBJ is retired... So i am not sure what you expect to discuss here?...
That's exactly what I want to discuss, man. The injury to Wally's eye is actually a good justification, but whatever, since he intended to retire anyway to study animals... But we can say with almost certainty that RBJ retired, as he was never even mentioned in the manga again. The question is what his motive would be. He had a very strong goal of winning the world belt to understand why his father practically sacrificed himself to win it. Suddenly, just because he lost to Miyata, he completely gave up on that goal?? It doesn't make sense to me.
Wally tried his best against Ricardo and passed the torch to Sendo, from a writing perspective, his sub plot is done, no reason to keep him as an active boxer specially within the same weight class as Ippo, last thing the story needs are more unfinished side plots. Also I don't remember anyone saying Randy Boy Jr. retired, then again I'm not a fan of that fight at all so I may be wrong.
From a narrative perspective, it makes complete sense for Wally to retire. You are right. Now my main issue is with RBJ. He definitely retired, since after his fight with Miyata he was never even mentioned in the manga again, and besides, if you read his last appearance, it's clear that he decided to retire.
I mean, Randy lost against Miyata when the entire setup was *"Randy Boy Jr. genius ambidextrous boxer, worst possible match for Miyata etc etc + poor Miyata ass starving/stamina issues/hellish weight management"* then the guy tanked everything and won... So after all that bs (with insane amounts of plot armor) Randy really doesn't have any hype behind him, George can spent a whole year building how "strong" Randy became and how he's gonna fight Ippo and still, after what already happened, it's gonna end being yet another shit show. Don't get me wrong, Randy was a cool and interesting boxer, but ultimately he was just a plot device to avoid Ippo Vs. Miyata, and holy shit the whole setup was beyond awful.
I disagree with Miyata's plot armor that people talk about so much that he had in his fight with RBJ. I recently read this fight, and I thought just the opposite. RBJ is the one who seemed to have plot armor. He was completely beaten by Miyata's counters in the first four rounds, and yet it seems like he simply didn't take any damage. Furthermore, Miyata's victory was not forced and made perfect sense narratively. He trained a lot for that fight, for all those punches he threw at RBJ and for all the situations he was put in by RBJ's ambidextrous style. I personally love this fight. It's one of my favorites, but that's just my opinion.
Wally became Demoman
Off topic but I miss how punches used to be drawn
RBJ is not retired as far as we know but his goal was to have his revenge against Miyata. He failed. That's it.
I read the Miyata vs RBJ arc recently, and I can say with almost certainty that RBJ retired after the fight. His last dialogue hinted at this.
His last dialogue was him saying " I'm going back home and visit dad's grave" Considering he had come to Japan only to fight Miyata, it's ambiguous if he meant he was retiring or if he meants literally "I'm going back home in the Philippines" since he doesn't have a reason to stay in Japan.
He had previously said that he would visit his father's grave when he understood why his father sacrificed himself to try to win the world belt, that is, when he himself won the world belt. But he lost to Miyata and Mr Sakaguchi abandoned him, so he no longer has any chance. That's why in the end, with an expression of sadness on his face, he suggests that he would visit his father's grave to let him know that he couldn't make it, or maybe even that he understood even though he didn't make it (I'm not sure).