"Hajime no Ippo" has covered each of Makunouchi's fights, starting with his introduction to the boxing world and winning the All Japan Rookie Kings tournament in a talented rookie Featherweight class (it has produced a four national champions and two OPBF Champions so far). The story continues with his ascension to becoming the Japanese Featherweight Champion, a title he has defended eight times. He's now begun his journey towards the world stage by challenging other national title holders in the OPBF. His current record as a professional boxer is 26 matches, 23 wins and 3 losses with all 23 victories by KO, and he holds the seventh ranking in the WBC. His only losses are to Eiji Date in his first attempt to challenge for the Japanese Featherweight title, Alfredo Gonzales, ranked #2 in the World, and to Antonio Guevara after making a 10-month comeback. Date would go on to challenge Ricardo Martinez for the world title but the injuries he sustained in his title bout forced him to retire and pass the baton to Ippo. Ippo's most recent fight was with Alfredo Gonzales for the #2 spot in the WBC World Rankings. While Gonzales dominated most of the fight, Ippo was able to knock him down and caused Gonzales to begrudgingly accept Ippo's strength. Gonzales won the fight after being luckily saved from a second knockdown by the ropes and caused massive damage to Ippo in his final attack. His objective is to defeat the current WBA Featherweight Champion Ricardo Martinez. In that respect, he decides to vacate his Japanese Championship in order to focus exclusively on the World Championship. Recently, Ippo's friends have realized that repeated blows to the head have given Ippo some degree of brain damage, and he has promised Kumi that if he loses one more time, he will retire. He was finally pitted against a new opponent months after returning to Japan unveiling a new Dempsey roll but lost due to fatigue. Ippo retired after this fight due to worry over punch drunk syndrome and injuries he sustained. He is currently being trained as a second at the gym while becoming a trainer at the same time.