Hajime no Ippo, too much is too much

Hajime no Ippo recently got its 1000th. chapter and congratulations to George Morikawa for such a phenomenal achievement. Even though that is very impressive I have to say that enough is enough. In Ippo there's just way too much unnecessary lenghtening of plot. Don't get me wrong, I've always loved Ippo but when did all the side characters start getting so much attention? It just gets too uninteresting to follow every sidekick having their time in spotlight.

I'm seriously considering watching Ippo's anime soon once again, it always delivers. Both anime and manga are really good to after Brian Hawk and there starts small downslide. Maybe it tells something that I remember almost anything before Brian Hawk and almost nothing after except for couple of things?

Even after mangakas loss of sense of proportion I'd still rate Ippo pretty high. Regardless of in which way it's now going the first couple hundred chapters will always be golden.