Yeah maybe the amount of hits he's taking are proving to be too much. Also it seems like coach kamogowa(sp?) doesn't have much for ippo to learn. Maybe takamura will take over...it seems like he has more and more scenes where his advice overshadows the coach. He is more mature when in comes to boxing and he does do a lot of his own training. Maybe one day he will be more suited to step in as a corner man as the series progresses