***DISCLAIMER: These are just my thoughts while watching the show. We don’t have to agree and I’m not here to argue with anyone.***

Tropes: sports romance, boxing, age gap, coming of age, grumpy/sunshine.

Idk... this was one of those dramas I started out of boredom. To be fair I felt like the entire drama was slow and the romance was subpar / lackluster. It only started getting interesting with the betting ring and when the men kept on kidnapping him and threatening him but they did not do enough to really develop that plot and make it compelling. Then with ML best friend dying... that just felt like a lazy way for the writer to give him some trauma so he'd turn over a new leaf and try to exit the rigged games he was participating in. I just felt depleted after all that and then to see FL lose the match at the end and not be able to end her career and retire on a high note sucked. The ending was not good, to put it nicely. I felt like that kiss high key came out of nowhere... I feel like it ended with more questions rather than answers. Like what exactly happened to the ML, why did the gun shot go off, why was ML bleeding, why did he disappear for months?

Usually I am one of those people who enjoys a reformed bad guy because he met a girl but this just completely missed the mark with me. Not to mention the FLs first relationship / bf just pissed me right off... he basically was using her so he wouldn't be unemployed then he turned around and became an agent? Spare me... if I was in sports I would not go to that man or trust him with anything.

I really wanted to rate this higher because I enjoyed Lee Sang Yeob's acting... I really feel like he put a lot of effort into his character and during his scenes you could feel the emotion dripping from the screen. It must have something to do with his really expressive eyes. Not to mention, he's good looking and has this floppy puppy dog thing about his mannerisms. His smirk / smile got me every-time and I really empathized with his character and wanted to see him win and get out of the mess he was in. But again, one man is not able to carry an entire show. I thought that the villain, Mr Kim Oh Bok (Park Ji Hwan) also did a good job of selling the role of the menacing ring leader of sorts and the FLs dad (Kim Hyung Mook) was also a scene stealer. I feel like this was Kim So Hye's debut in acting.. with that did she did ok for a first project but there are aspects of her acting that she can improve. Having said that, I'm sure she'll improve as she takes on more roles or receives more training.

Overall, I would not rewatch this drama and I'd say it is forgettable and I probably won't remember it much in the next couple of months. Nevertheless it was a good distraction and kind of kept me entertained when I had nothing else to watch.

I'd really rate this a 5.5/10 but I rounded it up to 6/10 because I did enjoy the acting and storyline to an extent... it's just that it could have been better executed and developed.

Would I recommend it to others? No, probably not. Unless you are a Sang Yeob fan and want to watch for his scenes, there's really no point. I'm not going to say anything else but if you don't trust my opinion then you should watch it and come to your own conclusions / judgments.

Anyway, thanks for reading and happy watching!

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