The Kawahara Boxing Gym member Nakatsuka is based on Takahiro Nakatsuka, with the same surname and similar appearance. The "Monkey" shirt Nakatsuka wears is a reference to the real life Nakatsuka's association with monkeys and boxing, calling himself the "Monkey Boxer." [33] On November 30, 2019, Tamura Ryoichi won the Super Bantamweight OPBF Silver title by defeating Moensaku Yor at Sunworld Dynasty Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan.

In 1969, Kamogawa opened the gym. [2] By twenty years, the gym had produced two Japanese champions and one OPBF champion, Miyata Senior. The gym also had boxing manager, Haruhiko Yagi, trainer Shinoda, boxers Mamoru Takamura, Ichirō Miyata, Baron Kurita, Masaru Aoki, and Tatsuya Kimura, however, Baron soon quit due to Takamura. Takamura invited Ippo Makunouchi to the gym, and, after sparring with Miyata, he became a member of the gym. After a second spar between Ippo and Miyata, Miyata and his father left the gym so that Miyata could face Ippo in the professional ring. Years later, the gym got a JBC middleweight belt won by Takamura, and Naomichi Yamada became a member of the gym for a short time before leaving due to having to move out of town. A JBC featherweight belt was later won by Ippo. Manabu Itagaki joined the gym, and Takamura later won the WBC junior middleweight belt until he relinquished it to move a weight class up. In File 148 of Mou, Shimasen Kara manga, JB Sports Gym appears in it. Mou Shimasen Kara is a manga done by a former assistant of Morikawa, Nishimoto Hideo. Takahashi Naoto, former pro-boxer, who Miyata Ichirō is based on and friends with Morikawa, was the first coach for JB Sports, but later leaving the position in 2007.JB Sports Gym appeared in Episode 4 of Fake Affair (偽装不倫) or Gisou Furin, a Japanese Drama based on the manga with the same name. A character in the series is a boxer, and he is seen at JB Sport Gym training in the episode. However, the gym name was changed to Toyokuni Boxing Gym (豊国ボクシングジム). In Chapter 1218, Hanamori Seigo and Shintomi Ryō names appeared in the series listed from BJ Gym. Both are boxers from the JB Sports Gym. The match was rescheduled for October 15, 2005, but the match was canceled instead due to Fukushima rupturing his right calf muscle. On October 26, 2019, Kyosuke Sawada managed to defeat Kazuki Tanaka in the Strongest Challenger Tournament (Class A Tournament) [30], which secured him a spot in the Champion Carnival in 2020 with a Japanese Bantamweight title fight against the current champion Yusuke Suzuki. Yusuke Suzuki was previously one of two boxers that had defeated Sawada early in his career.

The entire match was stream for free online, where you can see Morikawa act as a 2nd during his boxers matches. Dangan Boxing Promotions and Rizin (MMA) is set to use Hajime no Ippo themed tape during official matches in 2019. The gym then received the WBC middleweight belt by Takamura after he defeated David Eagle. Ippo had his JBC featherweight belt relinquished to move to the world stage. Takamura defeated world champion Richard Bison, making the gym acquire the WBA middleweight title. For their debut match, George Morikawa would act as their 2nd (which he only does part of the time.)

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Itagaki mentions that the reason why Kamogawa Boxing Gym doesn't get a lot of new members is because of the "hellish training" that Takamura, Aoki, and Kimura put them through. Even Ippo unintentionally scares away new members when they see him working out. [20]