Going for the belt[edit]
When you start a new game, you will be a newcomer to the boxing league, a virtual unknown, given the lowest rank with 0 wins and 0 losses. You must start off by fighting against Glass Joe, and proceed to fight each higher ranked boxer (Piston Hurricane, Bald Bull, Kid Quick, and Pizza Pasta) until you earn the chance to earn the championship by winning a fight against Mr. Sandman.
For each bout, you are given three minutes to defeat your opponent by knocking them down three times, or knocking them out cold. If you do not succeed in three minutes, or if you are knocked down three times, you lose the match. You are given one, and only one, chance to pay for a rematch against an opponent who beat you. If you lose the second time, the game is over and you must start from the beginning.
Your opponent's moves[edit]
Your opponents' jab and body blow are of course like your own. Your opponents don't use body blows very often, usually preferring a hook, which is performed when your opponent throws in a punch from the side and his arm is bent. Your opponents can also uppercut. There are two kinds of uppercuts. The more common uppercut involves the opponent ducking briefly before throwing the uppercut. They will usually overextend and you can easily counter attack. The other kind is faster and more immediate. This uppercut is thrown while standing and is not overextended much if at all.
Later on you may encounter the right cross. The first opponent to use the right cross is Glass Joe after defeating Mr. Sandman. This is a straight punch to the face that your opponent uses after dodging your left jab. You cannot dodge the right cross, so your only defense is to not provoke it in the first place.
You can tell a boxer is about to throw a punch because their eyes will turn yellow. This is called a "telegraph", since it tells you what's coming, and most of your opponents will have other telegraphs such as raising their fists a certain way before punching.
Defending your title[edit]
After you defeat Mr. Sandman, you must defend your title. You will fight all of your old enemies again except for Kid Quick. This time around they will all be ranked #1 in the world, as you were when you fought Mr. Sandman. They will be significantly harder, their moves and patterns will be a little different, and their eyes will not turn yellow to telegraph punches. They also wear blue gloves which apparently signifies their status as the challenger.
If you lose a fight—and be warned that even Glass Joe can be tough to somebody new to this part of the game—you will get the opportunity to rematch as usual if you hadn't lost a fight yet. When you do, your opponent becomes champion and you will be fighting to get your belt back. Your opponent's gloves will switch back from blue to their standard color, his eyes will turn yellow in advance again, and he will be a bit easier to defeat, but your opponent will still be tougher than when you first fought him.
In this part of the game, your opponents will now tend to punish a jab with an unavoidable counter-punch. Even Glass Joe is lightning fast with the counter. Therefore, inducing mistakes by throwing a left jab will no longer work reliably and is actually dangerous. This is now a game of watching your opponent and reacting.
Still defending your title[edit]
After you beat Mr. Sandman a second time, Pizza Pasta will be removed from the lineup, the game will get harder yet again, and Glass Joe is moved to before Mr. Sandman, making the new order: Piston Hurricane, Bald Bull, Glass Joe, and Mr. Sandman. After defeating Mr. Sandman, this pattern repeats until you ultimately lose. The game still gets progressively harder each time with difficulty maxing out at the 16th match. It is possible to continue for hundreds of fights.
Glass Joe and Bald Bull don't get much tougher after their second appearance. At the hardest difficulties, Mr. Sandman can be very dangerous when he lands a punch. His follow up attacks are fast, powerful, and tricky to dodge.
The most difficult opponent is Piston Hurricane. He becomes extremely dangerous, throwing lightning fast uppercuts, and Pizza Pasta-style flurries of jabs in the middle of match. At the most advanced levels, it's often possible to defeat Bald Bull, Glass Joe, and Mr. Sandman completely unscathed, but against Piston Hurricane, you'll find yourself taking damage and risk running out the clock.