14th fight of the hero Ippo Makunouchi, he faces the Japanese champion, the formidable Eiji Date. A very intense fight for the title where the two fighters meet again some time after the sparring they did together at the Kamogawa Boxing Gym.
Eiji will be declared winner by KO in the 5th round of this titanic fight, thus inflicting the first defeat of Ippo’s career. He will admit to his young opponent of the day that this one finally allowed him to feel emotions that he had lost until then. He even thanked Ippo for this fight.
