Is Hajime no Ippo available in English?

Digitally, yes. In print, not until Fall 2027.

After roughly 34 years with no official English manga release at all, Hajime no Ippo finally arrived in English on Kodansha's K MANGA service on September 21, 2023. That release is real but young: the translation is still working through the early part of a series that runs to 145 volumes in Japanese, so most of the story is not in English yet, anywhere.

In print, the answer is still no, for now. Kodansha USA has announced the first English print edition, Hajime no Ippo: Fighting Spirit! Omnibus, 3-in-1 premium paperbacks starting Fall 2027. Its cover art is not final, which is why this page shows Japanese covers only: no English print cover exists yet.

The reason for the decades of nothing is documented, and it is not the usual licensing story. Creator George Morikawa refused digital release even in Japan for 33 years, over concerns about digital royalties for manga creators. Ippo only went digital in Japan on July 1, 2021. Until then the series was print-only at home, and at more than 140 volumes no Western publisher could license it blind. The digital-first K MANGA model is what finally made the math work.

What English readers did get, for thirty years, was the anime: Geneon's Fighting Spirit DVDs in the 2000s, Discotek Blu-rays later, and the later seasons by streaming. For a generation of fans, that was the entire official English Ippo.