THE FIRST STEP.Ippo Makunouchi is a shy young man who works with his mother, Hiroko on their fishing boat business while he attends school, so he has no time to hang out with friends. One day, as Ippo is walking home, he is approached by Masahiko Umezawa and two other bullies. They start beating him up and make fun of him and his mother. Suddenly, a jogger walks by and scares the bullies away. Ippo loses consciousness so the jogger takes him to the boxing gym where he works out in and heals his injuries. When he wakes up, Ippo is amazed by all the boxers working out. The jogger then test tries to get Ippo to punch a punching bag with the bully's face drawn on it. Even though his hand gets bruised, the jogger notices Ippo has a very strong punch. He gives him some world championship boxing tapes to look over and sends him home. Inspired by the tapes, Ippo seeks out the jogger, Mamoru Takamura, who is a middle-weight professional boxer, and begs him to train him in order to fulfill his dream of becoming a professional boxer. To test him, Takamura kicks a tree and catches many leaves in his hand, using his lightning-fast jabs. He tells Ippo that if he can do the same, he will train him.