Sawamura Ryuuhei

Sawamura Ryuuhei (沢村 竜平, lit. sawamura ryūhei) is a recurring character in Hajime no Ippo. He was the former JBC Junior Lightweight Champion and has since retired from boxing. His main fights in the series are against Makunouchi Ippo and Mashiba Ryou. He is the main antagonist in the third season of the anime.

His surname is Sawamura. In Japan, surnames are listed before given names.

Sawamura Ryuuhei
Biography
Japanese Name	沢村 竜平
Nickname(s)	"The Owari Dragon" "The Deathblow Dragon" "The Mad Dog"
Gender	Male
Homeland	Nagoya, Japan
Family	Mother (Deceased) Father (Deceased)
Occupation	Construction worker Boxing trainer
Boxer Info
Weight Class	Featherweight Junior Lightweight
Height	170 cm (5'7")
Reach	170 cm (66")
Style	Out Boxer
Stance	Unorthodox Stance
Previous Affiliation(s)	Karil boxing gym
Previous Trainer(s)	Karil
Date(s) Retired	19 April 1996
Boxing Record
Total fights	14
Wins	11
Wins by KO	5
Losses	3
Draws	0
Championships	JBC Jr. Lightweight Champion
Appearances
Manga Debut	Round 462
Anime Debut	Round 111
Voice Actor	Miki Shinichirou

BackgroundEdit

Sawamura is a lonely, violent individual who had gone through a very painful childhood. As a child, his stepfather was an alcoholic who regularly physically abused Sawamura and his mother, and eventually the child Sawamura stabbed his stepfather with a knife in order to protect his mother. Soon afterwards, his mother places him in the care of the state while telling him she is looking for a job, when in reality, he is being abandoned by his mother as well (something that takes Sawamura three years to realize). His isolation and bitterness is only amplified when he is falsely condemned for killing doves that he had fed. His only friends are his old teacher from middle school and Sendou Takeshi, though he treats neither of them as such.

HistoryEdit

After his teacher introduces him to Karil, Ryuuhei becomes a violent boxer with a tendency to foul for no reason other than to hurt his opponents. He eventually fights Ippo for the JBC Featherweight title. He is the second challenger of Ippo's to develop a counter to the Dempsey Roll, but is the first to succeed in using it without getting hurt by Ippo in return. In the fourth round, Sawamura all but has victory in his grasp, but he postpones to win by KO Ippo and ending the match to instead cause further damage. Ippo then executes his Dempsey Roll counter counter in the following rounds and defeats Sawamura. After his loss against Ippo, he begins to realize the value of hard work, and sets Ippo as his goal, wanting to "experience the same heights as Makunouchi". Mashiba challenges him to a title match because Sawamura had attacked his sister prior to the Ippo match. After he wins his fight against Mashiba (due to the fact that Mashiba was disqualified), he refuses to accept the belt, and instead rides away on his motorcycle. However, due to the massive head damage he suffered during the fight, he accidentally rides straight into oncoming traffic. His injuries are so bad that he is forced to retire from boxing forever.

After his retirement, Sawamura's sociopathic rants and behavior are shown to have subsided. He sports a series of facial scars, as well as a calmer personality and a keen eye for boxing. He even enjoys a long conversation with Ippo and Sendou during Miyata Ichirou's match against Randy Boy Jr. and seems to have a sense of humor, albeit a sarcastic one. Sawamura also looks to have chosen to become a trainer and holds Miyata's father in high regard, calling him a genius second in the fight against Randy Boy Junior.

Match HistoryEdit

SuccessionsEdit

AppearanceEdit

Sawamura carries a menacing appearance. He is tall for a featherweight, with a lean but toned build and spiky, unkempt dark-colored hair. His eyebrows are thin and slanted upward at the outsides, with eyes almost always half-closed in a look that can be interpreted as boredom or distaste. His eyes' color is sometimes light brown, sometimes reddish. His nose points straight down rather than curving outward.

PersonalityEdit

Much like Mashiba Ryou, Sawamura is a dark, brooding boxer with a devastating fighting style and a tendency to foul. However, unlike Mashiba's openly aggressive personality, Sawamura possesses the attitude of a cold, calculating and disspassionate killer. Also unlike Mashiba, who fouls in desperation, Sawamura will often commit illegal moves simply out of pure malice, even when he has the upper hand. He is shown to be highly cruel and antagonistic and has openly expressed his bloodlust and desire to kill numerous times, all of these traits stemming from a harsh and disturbing childhood. During his match with Makunouchi Ippo, he even goes into a somewhat cannibalistic rant, desiring to tenderize Ippo so he could relive a childhood memory with his mother. Following the revelation from Sendou that Kawabe was bought up in similar harsh environments, he becomes somewhat humble and his psychopathic tendencies begin to lessen, developing a liking for hard work and a drive to be on the same level as Ippo. However, his cruelty and viciousness continue on, and is shown again in his match against Mashiba, which turned out to be a match full of fouls and illegality. Post-retirement however, he seems to have mellowed out. Though he remains cold and cynical, his more aggressive and vicious behavior seems to have faded away.

Boxing Style and TechniqueEdit

First and foremost Sawamura was a gifted counter-puncher, his sense for counter-punching is even greater than Miyata's. The difference between Sawamura and Miyata's counter-punching is that Sawamura hits his opponent before or after they have thrown a punch, purely to punish them, rather than during their punch, which Miyata does to use the opponent's momentum against them. As a result, Sawamura's counters have been called "dark/evil" while Miyata's are considered "light/good". Sawamura has fast and heavy jabs which are nicknamed the bullet and his most powerful shot is a Right Straight nicknamed the flash. Because of his rough childhood, Sawamura is rugged and is not above committing fouls, despite his great strength and sense for boxing.

TechniquesEdit

• Bullet
• Flash
• Counter
• Cross Counter
• IIllegal Blows

WeaknessesEdit

More of a hindrance than anything else is the fact that Sawamura has a tendency to commit fouls due to some anger problems and his overall sadistic personality. In fact, this has cause him his only losses up to the point where he faces Ippo. Also, because of his sadistic personality, he will actually not go for a knock out punch until he feels like it which, while looks good for points, still means that the opponent has a chance to come back, though up until his fight against Ippo, was never a problem before which ended up causing him his loss.

GalleryEdit

Sawamura Ryuuhei.

Eating meat.

Sawamura committing a foul!

Sawamura adopting his unorthodox stance near the end of the second round.

Sawamura's stance, like a revolver.

Sawamura's own technique called Bullet.

Sawamura's Flash.

Sawarmura's jab.

Right counter!

Hit by Chopping right.

Sawamura Ryuuhei's helmet and goggles.

Profile 1

Profile 2

Profile 3

Profile 4

Sawamura's Scarred Face

Add a photo to this gallery

TriviaEdit

• The character for Ryuu (龍) in his name means "Dragon", creating his nickname the Owari Dragon (尾張の龍, Owari no Ryuu).
• Though not directly stated, Sawamura's boxing style is strikingly similar to legendary boxer Kostya Tszyu in particular his bullet jab and thunderbolt in addition to the fact he punches very hard for an out boxer this is somewhat Ironic as despite the in ring similarity they are both polar opposites in personality. 
• His boxing stance strongly resembles a Muay Thai stance. This may not be a coincidence, as it is shown that Sawamura knows other forms of martial arts when he street brawls with a teenage Sendou Takeshi. His tendency to hit his opponents illegally with his knee is also good evidence of this, as the knee strike is one of the 8 fundamental techniques in Muay Thai.