Thread:Balthus Dire/@comment-26942270-20170923105502/@comment-1705775-20170926192739

if they commit crimes they can count but if they are just boxers doing their jobs they are not valid, no matter how "heel" their actions are.. mean-spirited jerks are not valid until they commit actual crimes.

Ivo counts because he transcended simply being a sports rival and very much went into criminal territory (that and being a tool for Soviet superpowers, of that era.. making him (by the setting) a literal "evil mascot" designed to show off how superior the Soviet regime was (the Soviets were depicted as evil in these films, due to the setting and time period etc).