1. Rei Fujimoto

Full name: Rei Fujimoto In-ring name: Rei Fujimoto Age: 23 Nationality: Japanese Weight: 156.6 lb Stance: Orthodox Style: Out-boxer

Appearance

Tall and lean with a refined athletic build, pale skin, sharp blue-gray eyes and soft white hair that falls over his forehead. His features are clean and elegant, giving him a distant, almost untouchable appearance.

Personality

Rei is cold without being completely unreachable. He keeps people at a distance because nearly every relationship in his life has come with expectations attached. He dislikes being treated as gifted or perfect and becomes visibly irritated whenever someone assumes success comes easily to him.

Around the few people he trusts, Rei is quieter than cold. His humour is dry, his affection is subtle, and he remembers more about people than he admits.

Fighting style

Rei controls fights with his lead hand, footwork and sense of distance. His jab measures range, interrupts attacks and draws reactions before he steps around his opponent. He prefers straight punches, quick two-punch combinations and clean counters rather than long exchanges.

He rarely retreats directly. Rei takes half-steps back, pivots off the centre line and forces opponents to restart their pressure. When trapped, he clinches briefly or turns his opponent before returning to long range. His main weakness is sustained body pressure: opponents who successfully cut off the ring can force him into uncomfortable exchanges. Long-range boxing naturally favours straight punches, range management and disciplined movement.

Biography

Rei grew up surrounded by expectations. His talent was recognised early, and by his teenage years coaches, sponsors and journalists were already discussing what he might eventually become. Boxing gradually stopped feeling like something he chose and began feeling like an obligation he could never escape.

He met Masato Kagaya at a national junior training camp when they were fifteen. Masato was one of the few people who treated him like a normal teenager instead of a future champion. They trained together, shared hotel rooms during tournaments and remained close despite coming from completely different backgrounds.

Rei defeated Masato twice during their amateur careers. Neither victory ended their friendship, but constant comparisons eventually changed it. Masato wanted to prove that Rei was not beyond his reach, while Rei became increasingly determined not to lose the one advantage everyone expected him to maintain.

First major achievement: At twenty, Rei won the Japanese Elite Amateur Middleweight Championship, defeating three aggressive pressure fighters without losing a round.

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2. Nikolai “Niko” Volkov

Full name: Nikolai Viktorovich Volkov In-ring name: Niko Age: 25 Nationality: Russian Weight: 159.6 lb Stance: Switch-hitter; naturally orthodox Style: Unorthodox switch-hitter

Appearance

Broad-shouldered and visibly muscular, with fair skin, tousled blond hair and bright blue eyes. He has a handsome, polished look and usually wears an easy, confident smile that matches his privileged charm.

Personality

Niko is smug, wealthy and painfully aware of how charming he can be. He enjoys expensive clothes, dramatic entrances and irritating opponents during press conferences. He often acts as though boxing is another form of entertainment created specifically for him.

Behind that attitude, however, Niko is obsessive about training. He studies opponents late into the night and hates the suggestion that his family name purchased his success. His arrogance is partly genuine and partly armour against the fear that he will never equal his father.

Fighting style

Niko changes stances during combinations, after defensive movements and while exiting exchanges. He might begin orthodox, step outside an opponent’s lead foot and finish from southpaw before they have adjusted.

He uses shoulder feints, broken rhythms and intentionally awkward pauses to make opponents commit too early. His punches often arrive from strange angles, particularly his lead hook, rear uppercut and shifting straight. Against technically rigid boxers, every stance change forces them to reconsider positioning and defensive responsibility. Opposite-stance tactics place particular importance on lead-foot position, circling direction and rear-hand awareness.

Niko’s weakness is his love of performance. He sometimes switches unnecessarily or remains square for too long because he wants to embarrass an opponent rather than simply beat them.

Biography

Niko is the son of Nikita Volkov, a former European middleweight champion remembered for his discipline and punishing left hand. Niko grew up inside private gyms, around championship belts and among people who expected him to continue the Volkov legacy.

His father never forced him to box, but Niko understood that every choice he made would be compared to Nikita. His flamboyant personality developed as a way of separating himself from his father’s stern reputation. He did not want to become another Volkov—he wanted to become the Volkov people remembered most.

First major achievement: In his first ten-round bout, Niko recovered from an early knockdown and outpointed a highly ranked veteran by repeatedly changing stances and controlling the final six rounds.

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3. Malik “Baby Mike” Brooks

Appearance

Dark-skinned with a powerful, compact middleweight build, thick arms, a strong back and short dreadlocks held away from his face by a thin headband. His amber-brown eyes and composed expression give him a calm but naturally intimidating presence.

Full name: Malik Andre Brooks In-ring name: Baby Mike Age: 24 Nationality: American Weight: 159.8 lb Stance: Orthodox Style: Swarmer / infighter

Personality

Malik is calm, observant and rarely raises his voice. Outside the ring, he is much sweeter than his reputation suggests. He is patient with children, respectful toward gym staff and usually the first person to check on a sparring partner after a hard session.

Inside the ring, that softness disappears. Malik does not fight angrily; he fights with frightening purpose. Once he senses hesitation, he attacks without giving his opponent time to recover.

Fighting style

Malik uses a compact stance, constant head movement and short explosive steps to close distance. Rather than following opponents around the ring, he cuts off their exits and forces them toward the ropes.

At close range, he works in layers: hooks to the body, uppercuts through the guard and short punches around the elbows. He rarely throws everything at full power. Lighter punches occupy the guard before one heavy shot breaks through. Short-distance boxing relies heavily on compact hooks and uppercuts and demands excellent conditioning and physical strength.

His greatest danger comes during entries. A disciplined out-boxer can catch him stepping inside, and his high-pressure approach becomes harder to maintain during later rounds.

Biography

Malik grew up in Brooklyn and entered a neighbourhood boxing gym after repeatedly getting into fights while defending younger friends. His first coach immediately noticed his resemblance to a young heavyweight legend: the compact build, intense eyes, explosive hooks and frightening speed at close range.

The gym began calling him “Baby Mike.” Malik originally hated the nickname because he wanted his own identity. It remained after spectators heard it during an amateur tournament, and he eventually accepted that the comparison could open doors—provided his performances proved he was more than an imitation.

His calm personality developed through boxing. The gym gave him somewhere to place his anger without allowing that anger to control the rest of his life.

First major achievement: Malik knocked out an undefeated prospect in fifty-four seconds during his first televised main event, turning “Baby Mike” from a local nickname into a recognised boxing name.

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4. Seo Ji-hoon

Full name: Seo Ji-hoon In-ring name: Seo Ji-hoon Age: 22 Nationality: South Korean Weight: 158.1 lb Stance: Orthodox Style: Slugger / brawler

Appearance

Tall and heavily built with a clean buzzcut, defined facial structure and dark brown eyes. He has a simple, masculine appearance, often wearing a relaxed half-smile that can quickly become mocking inside the ring.

Personality

Ji-hoon is quiet, detached and sometimes appears completely uninterested in the people around him. He does not deliberately mistreat strangers, but he rarely makes an effort to seem approachable.

During fights, he becomes a jackass. He smirks after clean punches, drops his hands to invite attacks and verbally mocks opponents he dislikes. His taunting is calculated: he wants them angry enough to abandon their game plan.

Outside boxing, his insults are usually reserved for people he genuinely cannot stand.

Fighting style

Ji-hoon is a heavy-handed brawler who prefers medium and short range. He plants his feet, absorbs or redirects the first attack and answers with harder punches. His best weapons are his overhand right, left hook to the body and short right uppercut.

Despite his reputation, he is not mindless. Ji-hoon occasionally gives ground on purpose, allowing opponents to believe they have pushed him back before suddenly planting and countering. At medium range, hooks and shortened straight punches become effective, while close-range exchanges reward compact combinations and strong conditioning.

His defence is his biggest weakness. He trusts his chin too much and sometimes accepts unnecessary damage simply to land one heavier shot.

Biography

Ji-hoon grew up in a tense household where frustration was either ignored or punished. He learned to remain quiet because speaking honestly usually created another argument. By adolescence, his silence had become emotional distance.

Boxing gave him permission to express everything he had been forced to suppress. His early coaches struggled with his temper, but one eventually taught him to control it rather than remove it. Ji-hoon became strongest when his frustration was focused through patience, timing and physical pressure.

His mocking behaviour developed after opponents began mistaking his silence for fear. Ji-hoon discovered that disrespect could make people reckless—and reckless opponents were easier to hit.

First major achievement: With only eleven days to prepare, Ji-hoon accepted a national middleweight title fight and stopped the heavily favoured champion in the ninth round.

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5. Masato Kagaya

Full name: Masato Kagaya In-ring name: Kaguya Age: 24 Nationality: Japanese Weight: 158.7 lb Stance: Southpaw Style: Boxer-puncher

Appearance

Lean, muscular and balanced, with slightly tanned skin, messy black hair and narrow gray eyes. His sharp features and serious expression make him look intense, though his calmer body language makes him feel more approachable than Rei.

Personality

Masato is calm, collected and naturally caring. He helps younger fighters, speaks respectfully to opponents and rarely behaves differently in front of cameras. Unlike Rei, he does not hide his affection behind distance.

His competitive side appears whenever Rei is involved. Masato can accept losing to anyone else as part of the sport, but losing to Rei feels like confirmation that he will always remain second. That insecurity occasionally causes him to act more stubbornly than usual.

Fighting style

Masato combines outside boxing with controlled power. He can work behind a southpaw jab and straight left from range, but he is equally comfortable stepping into medium distance and sitting down on heavier combinations.

His defining strength is balance. Masato does not possess Rei’s pure movement, Malik’s pressure or Ji-hoon’s raw force, but he can adjust between all three ranges. He uses double jabs, right hooks, straight lefts and counters after small defensive movements. Medium-distance boxing rewards combination attacks, defensive reactions and immediate countering—areas in which Masato is especially dependable.

His weakness is emotional. Against Rei, Masato sometimes abandons his adaptable style and tries to prove he can beat Rei at Rei’s own long-range game.

Biography

Masato was raised in Kagoshima and trained in a small local gym with limited equipment and almost no national attention. He was never considered a prodigy. Every opportunity came through regional tournaments, long bus journeys and victories over fighters expected to beat him.

At fifteen, he met Rei during a national junior camp. Masato admired Rei’s skill but recognised how isolated he was becoming. Their friendship formed through late-night conversations, shared roadwork and the simple fact that Masato never asked Rei to behave like a champion.

Rei’s two amateur victories over him changed their relationship. Masato remained proud of his friend, but he grew tired of being introduced as the boxer who was “almost as good as Fujimoto.” Rei, meanwhile, became frustrated by the belief that Masato’s success only mattered when compared to his own.

They still care deeply about each other. That is precisely why their rivalry has become so personal.

He fights under the ring name Kaguya, taken from The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. The story of the moon princess found inside a glowing stalk of bamboo.

To him the tale is a personal code. He treats every brutal opponent and grueling training session like one of the impossible tasks from the story, not to win easily, but to prove his grit and endurance. Just like the princess hidden in ordinary bamboo, he believes real strength is already inside him and is revealed through hard work. He cares more about the journey, the sweat, the lessons, the growth more than any record or title. When things go wrong he remembers the moon: some things are out of his control. All he can do is keep swinging. The feminine sound of the name doesn’t bother him.

First major achievement: Masato entered the All-Japan Rookie tournament as an unseeded regional fighter and defeated three nationally ranked prospects to win the middleweight competition.