The Champion Carnival brings us a Japanese lightweight title match!
How will this can't-miss spectacle play out?
The champion, Imae Katsutaka defends against the challenger Aoki Masaru!
It's been a full minute since the opening bell,
and the staring contest continues.
The fight has yet to really begin.
Good stance, he's pressuring me just standing there.
No openings at all.
Where should I move in, right or left?
Sheesh, what a textbook stance...
If left and right are no good, I'll go up the middle!
The challenger dives in headfirst!
The anticipation finally got to be too much for him!
Or so you think!
He slips around to the right!
What a sneaky move!
That's our Aoki-san!
Yeah, get him!
Bullseye! The opening hit goes to me!
A left!
The champ jabs him away as if he'd known the whole time!
Why you...
The champion looses a barrage of sharp left jabs!
He nails the challenger with pinpoint precision!
A right!
He measures him perfectly and lands a heavy blow!
Masaru!
Man, that's a nasty right...
Good, he's still holding up.
He really took a big swing. He's totally gotten into a rhythm.
No wonder he's the champion. He's good at controlling the pace.
Even if that right didn't knock him down,
if he keeps connecting, then in the later rounds...
Aoki!
You've gotta break his rhythm. Get slippery on him!
These crisp jabs are the champion's bread and butter!
Can the challenger find a way through?!
That last combo taught me everything I need.
After you land a light jab...
Comes a right!
We all know that pose!
It's the Frog Punch!
100% Fake
It's the Frog Punch!
Oh, he dodges by a hair's breadth!
Aww, I thought he had him!
He dodged your best move! You've got nothing left now!
The crowd's hopes are dashed!
Ah, but we can see the Frog made quite an
impression nonetheless, on the champion's cheek!
He suddenly looks very tense!
A full-body uppercut thrown from way down low.
It's not just flashy showmanship.
If that punch fully connected it could take your head off!
He's spooked!
Go get him!
Listen to those cheers, even after a miss!
A fine performance by our lead actor!
The crowd is on their feet already in round one!
He dodged it... Someone's been studying!
Well, I brought out the big guns,
but I guess he's not gonna make things easy for me.
Regardless, I have to set the pace now!
The challenger moves back in!
His odd movements confuse the champion!
Which one?
Both!
Now he's low!
He's wriggling around on the ground. Where am I supposed to punch?
He was practically on the canvas and he still came in from above?!
Calm down, don't get suckered into his pace!
The champ throws another round of quick jabs, but he's clearly being toyed with!
You won't find this style of boxing in any textbook!
Damn it, now I can't hit him at all!
Yeah, Aoki!
The champ's lost!
Get weirder!
Yay, Aoki!
Even though he missed, the Frog Punch had a huge impact.
The balance has been completely reversed!
Imae, don't try to follow him!
Make some distance and catch your breath!
The champ gives up on an infight and backs off!
No rest for the weary!
Holy smokes, there are no words to describe Aoki's pursuit of the champ!
The challenger is set in his unique rhythm!
Stay calm.
No matter how oddly he moves around, this is still boxing.
There are rules!
Now!
You got hasty, Imae!
Right where I want you!
The champ's one-two punch finds only air!
The challenger takes his trademark low stance!
Hell yeah!
Yes!
W-What a counter!
The frog is sent crashing to the canvas!
The champ has made good on his word. The Frog has been squashed!
W-Wow...
His timing was perfect, and he still got countered out of nowhere...
That wasn't a conscious reaction, either.
It was like a well-honed reflex.
You can't counter a tricky move like the Frog Punch with strategies.
That punch is the result of thousands of rounds of practice. Right, Imae?
You even knocked him down.
Even if he does get up, he's lost his best move and tasted the canvas.
The match is all yours!
Four.
The challenger has yet to move a muscle!
Five.
What a brutal knockdown! Can he get to his feet?
Masaru!
Hold on, Tomiko!
Takamura-san?
It's too soon to run over there.
Six!
Seven!
He's up!
But can he continue?
He stretches out, assessing the damage.
He looks all right.
He's used to getting knocked down.
Still...
His Frog Punch got countered.
Knowing your best move won't work is a huge blow to the spirit.
He takes a fighting stance!
The match continues!
It was no coincidence he dodged the first one!
This bastard's researched the Frog Punch inside and out!
His eyes still have fire in them.
He's still got some strength left, then.
A wild start to the first round and a huge chance for the champ, but he makes no move!
Calm as ever, he slowly inches towards the challenger!
This is why people make fun of Imae for being dull.
He's not getting worked up over scoring a down,
he's keeping that same slow pace.
Then he won't get knocked out in the first round?
So long as Imae doesn't suddenly lose his cool.
He looks a little sluggish, but is he really hurt?
They're within each other's reach now!
The tension is thick! Will we see a KO in the first round?
Only 30 seconds left...
He's down!
The challenger collapses in a heap!
You gotta be kidding me! That was the lightest jab ever!
He just lost his balance!
No, look!
He's hurt bad! His knees are wobbling all over the place!
He can barely stand!
But he still takes a fighting pose! The match will continue!
That counter-Frog Punch must've left him hanging by a thread!
He'll go down no matter what I hit him with now.
I can win!
Now the champion dashes in,
throwing punch after punch in an effort to end the fight!
If Aoki goes down a third time, Imae will win by TKO!
The challenger tightens his guard in a desperate bid
to avoid a round one KO,
but the blows rain down from the left, right, and center!
Go down, go down, go down!
Round one is over!
The challenger is just barely saved by the bell,
but while he avoided being knocked out,
the champion knocked him down twice and clearly demonstrated his strength!
N-Now he'll turn it around, right?
Somehow I don't think so.
Good job! We've got this!
Yeah, we're in good shape. Just a bit more.
Don't give him a chance to rest. Keep punching 'til he goes down!
Right, I'll put him away quickly.
You okay, Aoki? Can you still fight?
Hell yeah...
Round two!
He's gotta be at his limit...
Something's fishy.
Fishy?
He's been pounded at Aoki-san for three rounds now,
but he hasn't landed one clean hit.
Now that you mention it, Imae's face looks worse than Aoki's.
He looks like he's in pain.
You wouldn't think he'd be winning to look at him.
Something weird's going on in this fight...
There's the bell!
The challenger is saved once again!
Damn, I nearly had him.
The KO will have to wait 'til the next round.
Wh-Why's he got such a spring in his step?
He was about to pass out a second ago.
He could barely stay on his feet!
And those eyes...
Like he's sizing me up...
He's confirming how tired I am?!
You dirty rat! You mean everything from the first four rounds...
...was fake?!
That's such a dangerous strategy, it's borderline insane.
Getting knocked down was all an act?! Unbelievable.
Now I'm too worn out to use my footwork.
My only option now
is a slugfest.
I fell for his plan hook, line, and sinker!
He's nuts.
You veteran boxers are scary.
Are you nuts, too?!
I've been fighting just as long and I never would've even considered that!
Aoki's the only guy on the planet who could make this work!
Or maybe it's only working because it's Aoki-san.
There's no one out there who's better at confusing his opponent.
Round five!
You want a slugfest, you got it!
I'll trade punches with you all day!
A sharp jab and nimble footwork!
The challenger uses his feet for the first time!
This makes no sense!
Why isn't he trying to duke it out up close?
You've only just got your feet stuck in the mud.
I'm gonna drag you down 'til you're trapped: in up to your neck!
So now that I'm exhausted, you're going to try
and pick away at me from a distance?
Damn you!
The champion attacks with a big swing, but he comes up empty!
Suddenly the challenger is dancing around the ring!
You sneaky slimeball! Get over here and fight like a man!
The challenger looks completely fresh.
It's like the past three rounds never happened!
Imae, calm down!
All this wild punching's just going to tire you out more!
Shoot, he's so worked up, he can't hear me.
Aoki makes me laugh.
I don't understand. He was getting punched the whole time...
I'm sure it looked that way to the laymen.
He was playing dead.
Imae thought he had a chance to end it and started attacking nonstop.
He was pounding on a solid guard for the second, third, and fourth rounds.
Aoki used his fervor to make him expend all his stamina.
When he realizes he spent nine straight minutes punching a sandbag,
he'll suffer as much mental damage as he did physical.
A bullet-like left connects with the champion's jaw!
You got this! Now it's your turn to rain some blows down on him!
Not yet!
This round won't be the last one for Aoki.
We should be really impressed with him, Yagi-san.
He must be wiped out from enduring that onslaught from the champion for so long.
It may look like he's completely unscathed,
but he's dancing around keeping the champ at bay so he can recover.
So he's not just going to slug it out like always?
The follow up to "playing dead" is "playing revived," is it?
His mind must be racing at top speed.
It feels like he's putting an incredible amount of effort into this fight!
The second I try to catch my breath he jabs me!
Is the concept of a fair fight completely alien to him?
Running again...
Aoki Masaru, you're despicable!
Don't get so worked up.
Hell, if anything I'm the one who should be royally pissed off here!
You took down my Frog!
The champ's knees buckle! He felt that one!
And the round is over!
This time it's the champ who's saved by the bell!
He's wobbling just from my lefts.
That means he's so exhausted, he can't even position his feet.
He's struggling at the bottom of my bog.
It's time. The real fight comes next round!
Get ready! I'm gonna whip out the new move I created just for you!
Unreal... Imae's conditioning has never been a problem, yet look at him.
Don't drop your head, act like a champion!
Forget about a KO. Just stay calm and try to beat him on points!
Right...
My head and my body feel so heavy.
I can't think...
All right, great work!
I know you're tired, too. Just catch your breath.
You're going to try it, right?
It's written all over your face.
I don't know what you're planning, but give it all you've got!
The belt's within your reach!
Don't let your guard down.
Stay focused!
Yeah.
They picked a good time to encourage me.
Fact is, my new move's extremely risky.
Plus, this'll be the first time I've tried it in a fight.
Confidence doesn't mean anything at this point.
It's a huge gamble!
But still, I'm all in.
I need you, Tomiko...
Give me courage!
Oh man, he's an open book.
He's going in for the kill.
Come on, Masaru!
Round six!
Don't blink, guys...
He's gonna pull something.
You got it. Have faith. This will work!
I need to get my rhythm back!
The fighters stare each other down!
Who will make the first move?
My rhythm starts... with my left!
The challenger leaps in! They're going to trade hits!
Now you're coming in to brawl?!
I'm too tired! I can't get away!
Here goes nothing!
Wha—
What?
Huh?
Why'd he stop?
The champion is down!
I took my eyes off the action for just a moment,
and turned back to see the champ flat on his face!
I have no idea what happened, folks,
Yes! Yes!
It worked!
but the challenger is jumping around like he already won!
I did it!
What on earth just transpired here?!
Yeah, Masaru, you're the greatest!
Hey, hey, how'd he knock him down?
Shut up!
He pretended he saw something incredible and looked away for a second...
What the hell did he do?!
D-Did you see that?!
Yes!
Good thing we sat way up here!
It was the Frog Punch!
The same move Imae already countered earlier!
But the amazing thing is how he managed to land it!
Yes, it worked!
Man, no one punch has ever left me this tired!
The champion starts to stir, but he's hurt!
Can he beat the count?
Four.
In all the years I've been at ringside, I've never seen anything like that.
Imae! Get up, get up!
What did he do to me?
He looked away for a second... and I looked too...
I don't know what happened next!
He's up! The champion takes a fighting stance!
The fight continues!
Go, Aoki, take his belt!
You're gonna be the new champ!
Whatever, I'll knock him on his ass again and again...
A clinch!
The champ wraps his arm around the challenger and holds him down.
He's desperate now!
Break, back it up!
Get off me!
The champ holds on and tries to buy time!
How could anyone actually do something so crazy?!
Looking away in the middle of a fight?
Who does that?
We put our lives on the line when we step in the ring.
No one in their right mind would take his eyes off his opponent!
I thought he was just a clown who used ridiculous moves, but I was wrong.
This man is strong.
I've never met a boxer with such nerves of steel!
An uppercut slips through the gap. The fighters finally separate!
Oh no!
D-Don't!
Please, don't do it!
Gotcha!
He's gone?
The Frog Punch explodes off the canvas!
So this is how he knocked the champ down before!
The champ hits the mat again!
The Frog Punch lives again!
Hell yeah!
But was it a knockout punch? Will the title change hands?!
That's my Masaru!
I... I fell for it again...
The Distance Between Me and Glory