Ippo is such a masochist.
And he has it backwards: slapping the kid was entirely moral, but almost certainly illegal.
Ippo wants to punished if he does wrong by the "proper people". As this kid's coach and mentor, Ippo almost certainly could be classed one of the "proper people" to have meted out some punishment on him (the slap) for his fighting and general dickishness. Ippo needs to realize that bad people are stopped and get punished only when good people say "no more" and hand out those punishments.
Ippo refuses to take responsibility .