What made Max surprised was that Ash was not knocked down a lot and did not give up.
Max came from a common family background that was not all the well off.
The neighborhood he grew up in was not exactly a good one.
Where he lived was a place where it was easy to get into some kind of trouble and to get in with a bad group.
The crowd he hung around regularly was not too bad but they usually got into some troublesome situations.
It caused him to grow up quickly and to have to toughen up to avoid being full of injuries with each stupid thing his friends did.
He was not all that good at school and his usual crowd brought him many situations where he was labeled as a thug.
It did not help that others who wanted to prove their strength or wanted to increase and defend their reputation would come to challenge him after hearing how he beat others.
