Death Battle Predictions: Little Mac VS Makunouchi Ippo

 

Little Mac, Punch-Out’s flyweight bruiser from the Bronx. Makunouchi Ippo, Japan’s featherweight hard-puncher with fighting spirit.

Everyone loves an underdog. The idea of a challenger that feels small but climbs the ranks despite all odds. These two boxers may be on the shorter side, but they train themselves up to the top so they can prove themselves as the best. Both being underdog champions for their respective belts, these two have beaten the toughest of opponents.

Both being small, unstoppable boxers with a lot to prove, these two combatants show that with enough training, anyone can accomplish their dreams at the top. If the two were to meet in the ring, who would walk out of the ensuing death match? 

Background

Little Mac

“Guard up… Keep my guard up! Like… Doc said!”

When growing up in the Bronx in New York City, Little Mac was always the underdog. Despite his short stature, he had a dream to surpass the competition and become the greatest boxer in the world. Then came a chance meeting with the former world champion, Doc Louis. Doc agreed to train Mac and teach him everything he knew about boxing, in hopes of one day seeing the championship gold he had once held in Mac’s hands.

Through hard training day or night and rain or shine, Mac’s newfound boxing talent would skyrocket him into being one of the most well known rookies in the World Video Boxing Association. Fighting way above his weight class, Mac would go on to conquer every circuit and every challenger until he was the undisputed WVBA world champion. He would later retire after suffering three losses, wanting to go out in the prime of his career at the top.

Makunouchi Ippo

“Until I understand what true strength is. I’m the challenger! So I’ll always stand up!”

Makunouchi Ippo lived a humble life with his mother, tending to the family fishing boat business. Having lost his father at a young age, his meek demeanor, unimpressive 5’5 stature, and general politeness made him an easy target. One day, a particularly bad beating from his longtime bullies was cut short by Mamoru Takamura, an up-and-coming professional boxer in the middleweight division. When the unconscious Ippo woke up in the Kamogawa Boxing Gym, Takamura felt so bad for him, he signed him up, and Ippo was a natural.

Ippo was already physically strong to some degree, having lifted large boxes for the family business on the regular, but boxing unlocked something else in him. His punches were inhumanly powerful, but nothing he ever learned was as groundbreaking as his newfound courage and drive to win. 

Since then, he boxed for a while, retired, came out of retirement to fight a bunch more, and then retired a second time for good. Helped along by his friends, trusted coach, and love interest who just so unfortunately happens to be the sister of a guy he pummeled in the ring, Ippo’s reign was one for the records. 

Abilities

Mac

Boxing Style

Mac’s boxing style most resembles the Boxer-Puncher style. He typically uses his speed, combinations of jabs, and counter punches in his arsenal. Hitting harder than the typical Out-Boxer, with faser movements than a Swarmer or Slugger, Mac has a well rounded kit in his boxing style. He also seems to fall under the Counter Puncher sub-style. This category of boxing focuses on waiting for the opponent to make a mistake before taking advantage with counter punches. This style is especially effective against more aggressive opponents, exhausting and leaving them open to counter punches.

Jab

Mac’s standard punch. He typically uses it to counter his opponents while in the midst of an attack and dissorient them. He then capitalized by delivering a flurry of jabs to his opponent to accumulate damage.

Rising Uppercut

Mac jumps up and performs a spinning uppercut, mimicking a tornado's movements and gaining air.

Jolt Haymaker

Mac leaps forward into the air and delivers an overhead punch.

Slip Counter

Mac waits until the last second of his opponent’s attack. When his opponent approaches, he’ll use minimal movements to dodge out of the way, countering with an uppercut.

Straight Lunge

Mac charges up his strength into a straight punch. When he releases, the power is strong enough to send him sliding across the ring with its momentum.

K.O. Punch

The more punishment Mac takes or dishes out, the more he will charge up his K.O. Meter. When it’s full, Mac unleashes a devastating punch that will knock out most other boxers.

Star Punch

Mac’s signature punch, passed down to him by Doc Louis. He jumps up and delivers a spinning uppercut. A fully charged Star Punch is so powerful, it can knock down most opponents in one shot.

Giga Mac

When Mac lands enough punches and gains enough "Giga Mac Juice", he can transform into the hulking Giga Mac for a limited time. In contrast to Little Mac’s quick, lightweight style, Giga Mac is much larger, making him easier to hit, but contrary to his looks this form actually makes Mac faster in addition to there being a big boost to his power and durability.

Last Stand

When Mac is on the brink of being knocked out, he’ll power through and regain consciousness, ready to fight another round.

Ippo

Boxing Style

Ippo specializes in the In-Fighter boxing style with an Orthodox stance. He relies on close range combat, getting in and pressuring his opponent with hard hitting blows. The style favors Ippo’s pure power, often having him seek a knockout over a decision victory.

Peek-a-Boo Style

A stance in which Ippo presses his arms together to block, while maintaining a low center of gravity. It is used to block the vital areas of the face and stomach. It allows Ippo to freely use hooks and uppercuts without being limited.

One-Step Straight Punch

The first punch Ippo learned, taught to him by Takamura. Ippo puts his weight on his left foot, ducking, and throwing a right punch.

Turtle Strategy

A strategy Ippo has used a few times alongside his Peek-a-Boo Style. He puts his guard up to cover as much of his front body as possible, then waits out the opponent’s attacks. Looking for a good moment to launch a counterattack.

Liver Blow

A close range maneuver aimed at where the liver sits, on the right side of his opponent’s body behind the ribs. It can slow down fast moving boxers if Ippo can hit it.

One Centimeter Punch

When close to an opponent, instead of his fist travelling the normal curve of an uppercut, Ippo throws his fist straight up directly into the opponent’s jaw. It sacrifices power to attain a quicker impact.

Ten Centimeter Punch

A compact version of the Liver Blow that Ippo uses at close range. Typically he’ll use it while his opponent is clinching. With no more than ten centimeters of space, Ippo delivers a close blow to his opponent’s side.

Headslip

A technique used for dodging face blows by the user swaying their head side to side.

Neck Spin

A technique invented in the Philippines to counter blows to the head. When an opponent lands a punch, the user swings their head to the side, lessening the momentum and damage of the punch.

Overhand

A normal boxing punch that is thrown at a downward diagonal trajectory towards the top of an opponent’s head.

Gazelle Punch

Ippo kneels forward, then springs upward. The power of his legs carries him to deliver a hard devastating hook to his opponent. Aimed correctly, Ippo can stagger or even knock down an opponent.

Dempsey Roll

Originally invented by American professional boxer Jack Dempsey, the Dempsey Roll is a high-level technique consisting of remaining in a crouched stance and using frantic swaying movements to confuse the opponent. This figure eight motion combines weight and weaving to deliver devastating consecutive blows. Ippo adopted this as his greatest tool during his comeback match without even knowing it existed, and it’s certainly worked out well for him. However, this pattern is predictable and repetitive to those with a high skill level, so it can be countered and punished.

Sakki

A feint technique Ippo utilizes to trick opponents. Ippo will throw a feint punch to get his opponent to guard or attack, opening up a chance for him to counter them.

New Dempsey Roll

Once Ippo became the featherweight champion of Japan, the weakness of the Dempsey Roll became well known to boxers all over the country. To combat counters that could exploit the repetitive pattern of the Dempsey Roll, Ippo developed a way to throw off the rhythm of his opponents. During one of the girations of the move, Ippo will swap direction mid sway in an attempt to throw off his opponent’s counter attempts. However doing this causes immense leg strain. Even just using it twice can cause muscle spasms and ligament damage, to the point of shortening Ippo’s career.

Shoulder Block

A technique that allows Ippo to parry a punch with his shoulder. Unlike Turtle Style, Ippo doesn’t completely commit to defense when using it. This leaves him in a much more advantageous position to counter afterwards.

Cross Arm Block

The strongest blocking stance Ippo has in his arsenal. By crossing his arms together, Ippo can block even the heaviest of punches from his midsection. The downside of this technique is that it makes it difficult to throw punches. It also leaves Ippo open to body blows and hooks if he isn’t weaving.

Heartbreak Shot

A maneuver Ippo picked up from watching and fighting Eiji Date. It is a direct punch to the heart of an opponent. If it hits, the opponent will be stunned for one second, leaving Ippo an opening for almost any punch he wants. The only downside is that the target area is predictable, leaving it open to being blocked.

Tornado Jolt

The Tornado Jolt is a modified right hook that has Ippo twists his entire body, adding to the speed and power of the blow. It can also be thrown in rapid succession, essentially being a more compact version of the Dempsey Roll. It’s only weakness is it’s long wind up and predictability.

Southpaw Stance

While not experienced in it, Ippo has been able to adapt when injured and adopt a Southpaw stance of boxing. It’s essentially leading with his less dominant hand, however this also means that his jabs have the power of straight punches.

Tekken

Also called fists of iron, they are the result of training so intensely that your fists are as hard as iron. With the strength of these punches, Ippo can leave an imprint of his fist on an opponent, break ribs, and damage organs.

Brawling Stance

A stance Ippo has taken on when was angry. While using this style, Ippo only wants to do damage. He drops his guard, going for pure offense and brawling. Every punch Ippo throws will be a full force swing. While he can power through some blows, a strong enough counter can turn this stance against him.

Free Form Dempsey Roll

The ultimate evolution of the Dempsey Roll. Ippo sways his head diagonally up and down instead of just side to side. This allows him to throw an unbelievable combination of hooks, uppercuts, and overhands while in the motion of a Dempsey Roll. It has been described as nearly impossible to counter, and is one of the best moves in Ippo’s repertoire. This comes at a price though, as using it brings down an incredible strain on his lower body. Everytime he uses it, he risks hurting himself and shortening his career.

Managers

Little Mac

Doc Louis

Doc Louis is Mac’s trainer and former W.V.B.A. World Champion. Through his teachings and vigorous training, Mac was able to unlock his boxing talent and excel in his career. Through it all, Doc is always in Mac’s corner helping him out. 

In between rounds, Doc will give him tips and tricks on how to beat his opponent, coming up with strategies to exploit the weakness in their defense. He also loves chocolate more than anything, going as far as to fantasize about chocolate mid fight. He even gives Mac a candy bar that reinvigorates him and allows him to heal up from the last round. Is that allowed? Ah well, not like his opponents don’t do way more questionable stuff. 

Ippo

Genji Kamogawa

The owner of the Kamogawa Boxing Gym and Ippo’s trainers, Genji Kamogawa is a former boxer himself that coaches Ippo through every fight. He’s led world famous fighters like Mamoru Takamura to world championship gold, and intends to do the same with his other rising star.

He trains Ippo up until the day of the fight. He often investigates Ippo’s opponents weeks beforehand to analyse their fighting style so they can come up with a strategy to defeat them. Kamogawa is just as knowledgeable at ringside as he is when training Ippo, often being able to sense the change in the flow of the match. However if things get too rough for one of his boxers, he’ll do what’s right and throw in the towel to keep them safe, after a bit of hesitation anyway.

Feats

Mac

Overall

• Defeated world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson

• Won the Minor, Major, and World W.V.B.A. championships

• Had a museum dedicated to his career

• Beat former world champion Doc Louis

• Fought his entire career above his weight class

• Defeated some of the heaviest hunters in the world including Mr Sandman, Soda Popinski and Bad Bull

• Overcame the supernatural powers of Great Tiger

• Beat Aran Ryan despite his cheating

Power

• Lifted some training weights

• Does one handed push ups

• Punched Sandbag through a window

• Launched and knocked out Glass Joe with a Star Punch

• Star Punched Disco Kid so hard that he spun around the ring

• Knocked out a gorilla (Punch-Out!! version of Donkey Kong)

• Superior to Don Flamenco, who punched a bull out of a stadium (114.11 kilojoules)

• Beat Super Macho Man, who lifted a large barbell

• Scales to Bear Hugger, who pulled and knocked around a grizzly bear

• Beat Great Tiger, who’s magic was so powerful that he shook the ring

• Superior to Soda Popinski, who pulled a truck with his teeth

• Defeated Mr. Sandman, who dented a warehouse wall and door in two punches, and eventually demolished it (31.27 megajoules)

• Fought and won a tournament of 100 men within a few hours

Speed

• Can keep up with Doc Louis riding a bike while on foot

• Punches so fast that the round timer slows down

• Spun his jump rope incredibly fast

• Can keep up with Piston Hondo, a quick-footed boxer who can: 

• Unleash 24 punches in a second, counting the afterimages

• Seemingly create shockwaves with the speed of his punches (Mach 3.54)

• Catch katana swings and outrun bullet trains (Bullet Trains can move at a maximum speed of 320kms per hour)

Durability

• Can take punches from Aran Ryan’s horseshoe padded gloves

• Can stand up against Mr. Sandman’s punches, the same that can one shot the entire cast

• Can take punches from Piston Hondo who can punch a punching bag so hard it breaks the chains holding it

• Beat Bald Bull, who kept standing after being hit by a charging bull

• Should be comparable to Piston Hurricane, who can stand in the middle of an actual hurricane (potentially not applicable due to Super Punch Out canon)

Ippo

Overall

• Holds 23 wins with only 3 losses

• 100% KO rate

• Became Rookie King and JBC Featherweight Champion 

• Matched Filipino featherweight champion Antonio Guevara in combat (but ultimately lost to him)

• Defeated Miyata in their second sparring match

• Defeated Ryūhei Sawamura who would later become the JBC junior lightweight champion

• Defeated Alexander Volg Zangief the IBF junior lightweight champion from Russia.

• Defeated Malcolm Gat, the former reigning featherweight national champion of the Philippines

• Defeated Wally, the Indonesian national champion

• Defeated Jimmy Sisphar, former Thai featherweight champion.

Power

• During his first time properly punching a sandbag, ripped the skin off his knuckles after a ferocious straight 

• Dented a vending machine and shattered the glass

• Liver Blow can break ribs

• Can lift people off the matt with a punch

• Can heavily damage an arm by punching it multiple times 

• Draws blood from Wolv by hitting him hard enough through his guard 

• Threw gloves so hard that he knocked the head off of a statue.

• Scales to Takamura, who knocked out a black bear. (yes,really)

• Participated in an arm wrestling match so intense it broke the table it was on (741 kilojoules)

• Not to mention, he’s struggling evenly with Takamura, the WBA middleweight champion with a perfect record; the same one that punched out a black bear 

• Punches regularly lift people off the ground or send them flying

• Sent a man through the air with a single slap

Speed

• Ran ten "800 meter dashes" in thirty minutes

• Parries multiple stones thrown at him

• Scales to Hayami, who's Shotgun technique lets him punch extraordinarily fast

• Outran his trainer on a moped

• Can compare to characters like Itagaki, a fighter that moves so fast he looks as though he is teleporting

• Obviously comparable to Miyata, who aside from being one of the fastest boxers out there, once punched faster than the speed of sound (343 m/s aka Transonic)

• Comparable to Kamogawa, who could punch faster than fellow pro Aoki could see

• Comparable to Saeke who can fire off multiple punches within a fraction of a second

• Fast enough to create after images 

Durability

• With a broken hand, continued to box and then defeat Mashiba

• Fought through oxygen deprivation

• Can take punches from Takamura

• Can take 12 kilojoules of force to the head 

• Takes 10 consecutive punches to the face

• Tanks Sendou’s smash and is still standing 

• Comparable to Nekota, who survived falling off of a cliff

Weaknesses

Mac

He ain’t no air fighter.

Despite being a world champion, Mac’s fighting style is incredibly simple, and relies on his opponents’ tendencies to make mistakes so that he can counter them accordingly. It becomes an incredibly dangerous way to fight if he can’t get a read on his opponent's movements, or if he’s too slow to react in time.

Ippo

Ippo is among the toughest and smartest boxers around, but even he can be outmatched in the ring. For being a former champ, he doesn’t have the biggest guts in the world or anything. While he is certainly determined, more so than many other boxers, he is often intimidated when met with a challenge that stumps him, and begins to lag in performance accordingly. 

His incredible endurance has caused him to fight until his body literally cannot continue, causing bad cases of accumulated damage. At some point in his career, he was even liable to suffer brain damage, though nothing majorly life-changing came of it.

Also, he is USELESS with women. Man is consistently his biggest obstacle in getting Kumi, right next to her brother.

Summary

Little Mac

“Let’s go out on top, kid. It’s time to take your place in history” - Doc Louis

Advantages:

• Stronger and tougher
• Faster
• Superior stamina
• Last Stand is more effective in restoration than Ippo’s resolve
• “Giga Mac Juice”
• Taller, ironically enough
• Doc Louis is based

Disadvantages:

• Less years of experience (But who can blame him, have you seen how long Hajime no Ippo is?)
• Less intelligent
• Has rather simplistic strategies and moves compared to Ippo

Makunouchi Ippo

“Why are you punching? What are you chasing? You should already know the answer to that. To become strong.” - Genji Kamogawa

Advantages:

• More experience
• Smarter, and has faced smarter opponents
• Varied set of techniques 
• Technically has a more useful coach
• Elephant dong (literally cannot post an SFW explanation of what this means)
• Longer than One Piece

Disadvantages:

• Weaker, less durable, slower, and Giga Mac widens this gap even further
• Inferior stamina
• Has no shortcut/Last Stand equivalent
• Somehow shorter, the manlet
• When is he going to fight Miyata again

Verdicts

KirbyKid 

Despite some of the edges either of these characters have, this is a significantly close match, especially at first glance. Being boxers, they don’t really have much when it comes to powers or even abilities but it makes the fight itself a lot more personal and intense. 

Ippo, no matter how you slice it, has the most experience in this match. While also having a whopping 1300 chapters + to read through, he’s fought significantly skilled opponents likeTakamura who can fight a bear and Miyata, a dude who’s fist can crack the sound barrier. And if it weren’t obvious from just how many techniques Ippo has in comparison to Mac’s style of fighting, Ippo has no short of ways to lay a beat down on Mac.

Mac, on the other hand, has barely any material to go over in comparison, though he funnily enough has just enough to make this a fight. In the Nintendo power comics, he was able to take on a gauntlet of 100 men and still 2 shot the gauntlet's best fighter, Super Macho Man, as if he’d been at full health the entire game. Even if these men weren’t all super professional boxers, it’s still taking on 100 MEN, full sized and all. All while running through a city and taking on groups at a time. 

Then there’s the matter of taking on Mr. Sandman, a character who is capable of taking out a building in a couple punches. Not only can Mac take these punches, he can dish them out Sandman’s way and cause him to get downed as well. This is pretty significant given that not only is the dude twice Mac’s size but was also the champion of the WVBA for a while and Mac makes short work of him. Ippo’s series, while sporting their own number of potential superhumans, is a lot more grounded with characters not really approaching that level of strength. 

Piston Honda is also another character capable of creating Mach cones around his punches, giving Mac a closer edge in speed to Ippo. Ippo should compare to Itagaki, another fighter capable of moving so fast he appears to be teleporting around the ring, but Mac has fought characters fast enough to outrun bullet trains and even actually teleport like Great Tiger.

And perhaps the final nail in the coffin is Giga Mac, a form that Mac can attain via “Giga Mac Juice” (is that a form of steroids?) and despite the lumbering look of the form, it actually increases the power AND speed of Mac, though comments made by Louis do suggest it makes Mac a little more dumb as a result. Mac is really good at responding to patterns, and once Ippo goes in during a close match, he typically likes to slug it out, leaving himself open to hard attacks, when by comparison to Mac he really can’t take much damage.

So despite the severe lack of material in comparison to Ippo, he comes out on top. In true Little Mac fashion, Ippo will be the one coming up short in this fight. 

Clockboxxer

(Let the truth be told)

One of my favorite matchups these days. There’s a lot you can do with the differing fighting styles, and framing it like a Hajime no Ippo fight could really net some legendary moments. 

You’d think with Ippo having a manga as long as his dick and a supporting anime would be more than enough to find SOMETHING that trounces Mac and his, like, 3 short games and few stories. But, nah, there was an actual discussion to be had here. 

Ippo obviously does have a huge advantage in experience. And with that experience, he’s picked up a wealth of techniques that not even Mac has seen before, while Mac’s own smaller moveset isn’t as special. Hell, the funny thing with Mac is, despite fighting way crazier boxers, he has yet to really fight someone like Ippo. Everyone he fights is varying degrees of a stupid cheater. Then you have Ippo, an intelligent, adaptable, honorable boxer. He’s not as repetitive as the roided out dudes Mac has had to deal with, while Ippo’s seen just about every component of Mac’s fighting style, though with varying degrees of success in combating them. 

Ippo’s also one hell of a strategist, while Mac’s workarounds tend to be really straightforward and not require a whole lot of planning. It’s very likely Ippo could pick on the Smasher’s tendencies and react accordingly, while, again, being nowhere near as predictable as Mac’s usual roster.

With all this, it’d seem like an easy win for the featherweight champ. But once Mac’s own advantages are plugged into the equation, it starts to tip the other way.

Ippo was thought to be several times faster, but mach cones in Punch-Out actually suggest much closer speeds to Itagaki, and more notably, the supersonic punch thrown by Miyata, Ippo’s rival. 

As a boxer heavily reliant on dodging and capitalizing on mistakes, this is gonna help a lot, though not as much as his power edge. Long story short, even the lowest reasonable ends for Mr. Sandman are gonna be punching up significantly higher than anything in Hajime no Ippo. Mac’s punches are gonna do much more to Ippo than Ippo’s are gonna do to him, and that’s the key. Ippo is used to having the most destructive punches in the ring, or at least on a level comparable to his opponent, and being able to power through any opposing hits. But with Mac, one clean hit is gonna knock Ippo’s block off. Yes, Sandman is stronger than Mac, but taking hits from someone magnitudes more powerful than Ippo at all is gonna mean he can take any punishment needed.

The argument for Ippo outlasting, even though we initially thought he had stamina by a lot, went out the window thanks to those Punch-Out comics. Mac fought for actual hours in one instance, meaning he’d be able to chug on long after Ippo’s tuckered out. 

Ippo likely has superior footwork, being taught to an advanced degree by Kamogawa, but that can only get him so far when his fighting style is a lot more direct than Mac’s. Add in Giga Mac and Last Stand, and I don’t see Ippo keeping up in the ring for too long. 

Ippo’s best bet is gonna be his various forms of the Dempsey Roll, but it wouldn’t be the first time Mac kept up with mixup afterimages. Even then, the Dempsey Roll strains Ippo a lot, so it’s not something he’s liable to spam. 

The way I see it, Ippo’s probably gonna have a great initial edge thanks to his more in-depth planning, wider variety of techniques, and experience in professional boxing. However, Ippo’s style is prone to make him too reckless and take a hit from Mac that he can’t recover from. As the fight goes on, Mac’s gonna overtake the featherweight with his comparable speed, superior power, resilience, and trump cards. Sorry, Ippo, as much as you’ve got the fighting spirit, prepare to get Punched Out by a Mac Attack. 

Please let this happen next year. Maybe this year by some miracle. We need another dope boxing match.

RadioactiveCaffeine

(You're rather rude. Go take a shower!)

You know, when it came to this particular fight, I was pretty used to hearing that it was simply a case of superhuman, cartoon boxer, Mac vs the down to Earth, average boxer, Ippo. I'd only ever consistently heard that it was a stomp and Mac should fight someone far less interesting like Dudley from Street Fighter. Were they right in that assessment?

No, not really.

Because Ippo no Hajime is soooo long, we had to split up the work, and we each read about 222 chapters each. In my sliver of this man's career that I've read, I've found a vast range of fucking ridiculous, over the top, blatantly superhuman feats. The kind you absolutely would see in Punch Out, which honestly, isn't all *that* exaggerated. Honestly, at this point I have yet to see a single boxing series that isn't exaggerated or over the top in some way. Rocky progressively got to that point with communist Russian super soldiers on steroids capable of performing superhuman feats, Punch Out is Punch Out, and I shouldn't shouldn't have to explain Megalo Box. Ippo no Hajime ended up being pretty insane itself, with shit like punching heads off statues, being able to stretch punches far enough to reach opposite ends of the ring, punching faster than the speed of sound, fighting bears, and shaking small shops in a fit of rage.

In reality, I could not think of a better opponent for Mac and Ippo than each other. Their careers are of similar length, and they both approach similar levels of bullshit, while being two characters that mesh together extremely well. Both are underdog superstars who rise to the top, but eventually retire after losing due wanting to end his career on a good note on Mac's end and on the other end, Ippo likely having CTE, and trying to preserve his health. Both have insanely weird, but deceptively skilled trainers. Both have fought outside their own weight class. Both have extremely unique self made or taught techniques. I think both have more depth and mesh well together than most of their other opponents, which are usually thought of simply to avoid this fight, because of the apparent stomp, or the fact that people believe Ippo would stomp if not for a huge stat gap. After getting out of the way why this fight thematically works so well, are any of these ideas about the debate over who wins actually true? 

No, not really. 

I will admit that when it comes down to experience, Ippo does have more chronological time on his end, as he's been in the boxing business for at least like 7 to 8 years now, while Mac is only 17, and thus could not possibly have as much experience in time. You'd be heavily mistaken to believe that this means Mac's official boxing career is much shorter or less comparable though. Ippo's official match history is 23-3, while Mac's is 40-3 (assuming he has a fully successful streak up until his "Last Stand" and during the last stand, defeats everyone at least once again plus Donkey Kong, before he loses 3 times). If you include Ippo's non-official matches or exhibition matches, he goes to 34-13, which is still lesser. And this is just Mac's career from the Wii game, not counting the NES game, assuming you treat them as different canons. 

In terms of techniques and overall skill, I would actually give this to Ippo without question because he has more techniques and employs multiple fighting styles, while Mac sticks to the same fighting style he's always used plus whatever few techniques he already had from his games plus the few he gets from Smash (which is non canon as shit mind you). Do I think this makes Mac a mindless fighter? Hell no. Mac excels at paying attention during a fight, noticing the smallest patterns, cues, and details. That let him know when an opponent is leaving themselves open to attack. He employs a very tactful strategy of dodging and getting in hits whenever possible or in the best circumstances, finding heavily exploitable weaknesses to abuse. Whether this would work on Ippo or not is very hard to tell, but given Mac has used this on plenty of champion fighters and came out on top, it's possible that he could find patterns in what Ippo does as well. However, I do think that Ippo's multitude of techniques and styles are going to make it extremely hard to almost unlikely that Mac could ever pick up on a pattern or understanding of Ippo's style before its already changed. So I do think in this area, Ippo is just too much for Mac normally.

As far as stats go, this was actually pretty close and if it wasn't for a feat we ended up finding later down the line into this, Ippo would have actually had a solid speed advantage due to the feat of punching fast enough that the sound of impact didn't happen till noticeably after. Mac just happened to scale to a character who happened to punch multiple times within a given second fast enough to warrant being a bit faster. 

In terms of strength, this has been considered somewhat debatable due to the nature of Sandman's building destroying feat. My personal take is that even without it, Mac scales to feats I find to be a bit above what Ippo's series is capable of normally, but not to a crazy extent. It's just things like casually tossing bulls into the air seems a bit better than fighting and beating a black bear. 

In the end, does this give me a completely clear winner? Again, no, not really.

This leaves me in a kind of tricky situation where Mac's stats are a bit better than Ippo's but not enough to nearly justify a stomp of any kind or ignore the huge skill gap. Both are also kind of known for being very straightforward people fighting others who are more extraordinary than themselves, so it's kind of hard to gauge things by simply thinking about who deals with the weirder stuff. I think it's entirely feasible to say that Mac, normally being someone who has to deal with people far more powerful and faster than himself, would have a much easier time reading, analyzing, and figuring out the weaknesses of someone who's actually lesser than him in that way. However I also have to recognize that even characters known for being weak like Glass Joe, can become an issue for Mac simply by overwhelming him before he can get a proper read on him (and this is a very possible assumption to make, because of Glass Joe's much harder rematch bout). Ippo is very much so in a situation where he can potentially thrive against Mac by having way too many options for him to keep up with. It's just a question of whether Mac's likely better match history shows he can still rise above the odds. Given the fact that Mac has been in a variety of matches where his enemy can give a punch strong enough to knock him out in a single hit while having some of the most random and imperceptible attack patterns, and he's somehow managed to overcome that by being being careful enough, skilled enough, smart enough, and fast enough, I can't say there's not a good chance Mac can overcome Ippo the same way he manages to overcome most people he fights. 

Ippo would likely end up being the toughest opponent Mac has ever had to take on not because of his stats, but his sheer versatility being a hard counter to Mac's fighting style. However, I'm ultimately going to have to side with Little Mac barely due to the better record, the better stats, and his displayed history of adapting to enemies who would normally be very hard to read while being incredibly physically superior.

Little Mac Ipp-owned the competition.

PineappleGuy Carmine

(Rise up to the challenge of your rivals)

So we take a step down from the previous heavyweight boxers featured on Death Battle, to the smaller weight classes with these two small scrappers.

Mac vs Ippo has always been a pretty interesting match up on the surface. On one hand, you have the absurdity of a world with a more cartoonish vibe in Mac’s case vs the stylized dramatic anime style of Ippo. There’s even more to get into beyond that surface level comparison, so I’m excited to get down to business.

However before we start, I should note the variations of Mac that exist. Today I’ll be focusing on the Mac that appears in the NES game, the accompanying comics, the Wii game, and its comics as well. Seeing as these are the most consistent Mac gets throughout the series.

Let’s start with the stats. Mac and Ippo are pretty comparable in speed, both scaling to boxers like Hondo and Miyata that can break the sound barrier with their punches. Ippo definitely takes an edge in travel speed though, being able to outrun a moped vs Mac just keeping up behind a bicycle. This will probably help Ippo chase Mac down and dig in deep to utilize his In-Fighter style.

Next up is judging how hard of a punch these two can both take and dish out. So let’s cut right to the chase and compare the strongest punches Mac and Ippo have survived. Ippo has a pretty straight forward feat of surviving Hisato Kojima’s big punch to the face. A punch that had previously been stated to hit with the force of a two ton vehicle. Pretty good, but Mac steps up pretty hard for his verse’s strongest punch. 

In Mac’s rematch with Mr. Sandman, it’s shown that Sandman got so angry seeing Mac as the champion that he decided to punch down a building. Now I can guess what you're thinking, “Doesn’t he take multiple punches to knock the building down, and with no timeframe?”. Well to that I say, there’s a pretty easy way to deduce the amount of punches Sandman threw, at least up to the third story panel. Take a look at his first punch, you’ll see he creates a visible amount of stone debris from the wall. If we examine the second punch in high resolution, we can see the debris is still airborne and hasn't hit the floor. With this, we can conclude that it can only be his second punch. So bing bang boom, calculate the strength he needed to bend the doorframe a meter away from him, divide it by two, and there you have it, 31 megajoules from a Mr. Sandman punch. Over 40 times Ippo’s best feat of strength with his and Takamura breaking that table. So power and durability pretty definitely go to Mac.

So how about technique and training? Well this one has a pretty big divide because of the way their series are presented. Mac is the player character, with very little story of his exact boxing style and techniques disclosed. Since his style is at the player’s mercy, he does a bit of everything. Meanwhile Ippo with his well over 1000 chapters of material goes deep into his style and gets to refine it. Each fight for Ippo is a battle of minds as well as bodies, whereas Mac usually just sticks to following the pattern in front of him. Point Ippo.

Up next is stamina and resilience. While it’s true that Ippo being a 10 round boxer beats out the 3 round length of Mac’s matches by a wide margin, Mac still somehow finds a way to even the odds. In the NES Punch-Out comics, Mac is forced to fight through a gauntlet of 100 men, and then having to take on a world champion circuit boxer at the end. While most of the men aren’t exactly prodigies in the ring, Mac still manages to keep punching through them for an entire hour, beating anything Ippo has done in either the ring or his training. Mac also has the edge when it comes to facing a knockout. When the chips are down, Mac calls upon the last of his strength to perform a Last Stand to hang in a little longer. This lets him keep his full boxing compatibilities, compared to Ippo who has to essentially fight on instinct alone when he fights off a knockout.

Finally, for the spirit of the fight, let’s compare their managers. Doc Louis and Genji Kamogawa are both former boxers teaching their wisdom to these young athletes. Both were pretty accomplished in their time, Doc becoming a world champion himself, and Kamogawa being one of the best boxers at a time when boxers had to fight multiple times a day. Both can pick apart an opponent and give tips to Ippo and Mac. However when comparing the two in action, you have to remember something. Doc does all of his analyzing and gameplanning on the fly, whereas Kamogawa typically relies on having to observe Ippo’s opponent months before, often building a strategy around techniques Ippo hasn’t even developed yet. With the rules of Death Battle, I’m going to have to give the edge to Doc for training in the moment Kamgawa’s consistent reliance on preparation.

So with that, Mac takes strength, durability, stamina, and has the superior manager, while Ippo takes the speed edge, along with better techniques and training. On the surface this seems pretty evenly spread, possibly going either way. There’s just one thing that makes the result of this fight pretty decisive, power. Ippo simply just doesn’t have the strength to hurt Mac based on their best feats. He may be able to duck Mac for a bit with his slight edge in speed, and that’s a generous maybe, but Mac will eventually catch him simply for the fact that the 100 man gauntlet he’s won trumps any of Ippo’s stamina feats by a wide margin. This isn’t even accounting Mac’s transformation into Giga Mac, which boosts his speed and strength even further. So with a decisive punch, Little Mac claims victory. Ippo is gonna need a Doc of his own after this fight.