Volume 1 of JH's The Boxer starts with the "legendary trainer of five world champions", K, looking for his final project. Initially, it seems like it's going to be Bakesan Ryu, a prodigy with the reflexes, agility and flexibility to embarrass a trained fighter 4 weight classes above him. He even has the flashy and impractical moves that a crowd will love, not to mention the unusual hair color and style that marks your typical manga protagonist.
And then K notices a kid just letting bullies pummel him in an alley. JH doesn't explain what K saw until the very end of the volume, but K extends the offer to Yu to train him into a champion. Yu doesn't seem all that interested, however, so it would seem K's wasting a month waiting for him to show up at the gym.
After that, the story shifts to the local high school, where we see Bakesan uses his skills to bully and intimidate weaker students, particularly Injae, a meek kid with glasses. Injae seems to want to be friends with Yu, while Yu doesn't discourage it, he doesn't exactly encourage it, either. Although with him, actually speaking might qualify as encouragement.
About the time Yu saves Injae from being hit by a soccer ball kicked by Bakesan, JH switches focus to Injae. Injae's father was a boxer (career record: 13 wins, 12 losses, 2 draws), and Injae wants to be like him. Which he decides means he can't keep taking the bullying any longer, he has to stand up and fight.
(His father, when asked about fighting someone you know is stronger, makes a point that courage in a boxer and courage in someone who isn't are entirely different and equally admirable things, so it's not him imposing some toxic notion on his kid. He outright says it's OK to run.)
Unfortunately, Yu's interference has made him Bakesan's target now. Everything comes to a head in a series of fights as Injae stands up to Bakesan despite the difference in natural talent. In turn, this determination seems to spark some interest within Yu, and he gets involved. Which is when we get a glimpse of what caught K's eye.
JH has a relatively simple, clean style. Thin lines and basic character designs that distinguish the important players from each other, but also allow him to exaggerate for effect. The way he draws the face of one of Bakesan's hangers-on when Injae hits him with a jab, versus when Yu does the same thing, is entirely different. Injae's causes the guy's head to rock back slightly. Yu's reduces it to a blank square with force lines shooting off it like an explosion. When Yu hits Bakesan with a jab, JH draws it like someone took a hole punch to Bakesan's head, as a representation of what the punch felt like.
The book's an odd mix, because JH will add panels discussing or diagramming principles of boxing, like why you don't switch which punch you're going to throw in the middle of a punch. But then there's also a lot of figurative imagery. Bakesan's got a big head about his talent, so we see him as a giant seated atop a mountain. The "chosen one", while the tiny blurry outlines of lesser fighters reach futilely towards him from below. JH uses that a few times early on, then brings it back to different effect during his fight with Yu.
Yu's an interesting choice for a lead character, simply because he's so passive. We get a couple of glimpses of his past and current living situation, but not much, and he's not forthcoming, beyond the fact he doesn't recall ever really wanting to be anything or do anything. The later volumes (at least the 2 I've read so far), reveal how JH plans to use a character like that, though.
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