Man I really hope ippo starts to get what takamura is talking about soon. I would say one can only be so dense, but this is the guy who hasn't fully picked up the not so subtle hints of his love interest in 1000+ chapters xD.
Was also pleasantly surprised to see takamura paralleling himself to ippo, but disappointed that he thinks that there is a fundamental difference between them (takamura's focus is boxing, ippo's is the ppl around him). I'm willing to venture if push came to shove and takamura had to choose boxing or the coach, he'd choose the coach, and if he did that, he'd be just like ippo is now in retirement.