Ichiro Miyata
Boxing Abilities
Miyata's stance.
Cut from the same cloth as his father, Miyata is an out-boxer technician with a speciality in counters. Hailed as a genius since before his pro-debut, he has in fact been practicing boxing with his father ever since he was a child. Before even getting his professional license, he was considered better than most 4-round boxers,[43] and he was able to beat a 6-round pro Masaru Aoki in spars.
Despite lacking in physical strength and toughness, Miyata makes up for that with his razor-sharp technique, reflexes and speed. According to his father, he also possesses an unusually great eyesight that allows him to follow the motion of even the fastest of punches.[44] Through his training in Thailand, he learned to put his full weight into each of his counters, adopting a high-risk, high-reward style of counter-punching that boasts an impressive knockout rate.
Physical Ability
Power
Before even getting his professional license, he was considered strong by Mamoru Takamura[45] However, he is unable to break blocks as he can only use counter by shifting his whole body as seen during his fight with Arnie Gregory, whose power is on par with Ippo Makunouchi. Overall, Miyata is slightly average when it comes to strength which he compensates with his speciality in counters.
Speed
He possesses extraordinary speed, which has evolved to the point where he can disappear from his opponent's sight. His footwork is considered perfect even before becoming a pro boxer.[46] It was mentioned that his counters can break the sound-barrier, he can use Speed Hell to overwhelmed opponents while circling them while throwing jabs, being an out-boxing technician, his hand speed can penetrate opponent's guard like a "spear" piercing through a hole, and only use with precise pin-point accuracy, he uses his speed to compensates his lack of power punches.
Stamina
His stamina is very high, as he was able to endure being punished by other opponents with greater strength, his weight management was so harsh that he was able to stay in the Featherweight division despite his uncontrolled height.
Technique
Miyata's fighting spirit.
As an out-boxer, he usually fights using footwork to get close to his opponent and begins throwing fast left jabs around the opponent. If they guard, he strikes at the guard until he can find an opening, or he goes for body blows. He starts out almost all matches the same way, by throwing a large number of only small jabs and circling the opponent as much as possible. He can trick his opponents by pretending he's going at his full speed to make his opponent over-confident about catching him. When a big punch is thrown he will speed up and counter. Miyata will repeat this pattern, speeding up gradually throughout the fight, though he rarely has to as he continues to master it. He is also able to memorise his opponent's attacks with his body, so no single punch can work on him twice.
Since he doesn't have much innate power, his primary weapons are counter punches, because they rely on the opponent's momentum to deal damage. Ryūhei Sawamura's and Miyata's counters have been compared numerous times. The difference is that Sawamura strikes his opponent whenever he sees an opening; Miyata only steps into his opponent's punches when they are fully in motion. The result can be seen in Miyata's KO ratio, which even rivals Ippo's.
While the vast majority of his matches has been him using the out-boxing style, he sometimes shows the ability to use in-fighting skill as well. He can combine both offence and defence during close range exchanges.[47]
Miyata is regarded as the third most talented boxer in the series, behind Ricardo Martínez and Takamura.
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Techniques
Since Miyata is a counter specialist, all of his punches are potential Sunday punches.
Speed Hell - The moment in which Miyata decides to go full speed. He can launch a flurry of different punches from many different angles, and advances so quickly that to his opponent it looks as if they're staring down several Miyata's at once. It was first shown during his fight with Randy Boy Jr. when Miyata felt like he had to compensate for Randy Boy's constant switch hitting with more speed. Takamura (as well as his then opponent Bryan Hawk) also used this move. Speed Hell drains Miyata of his already low energy reserves.
Southpaw Hitman Style - used during his match with Mashiba as a feint. Miyata performed a shoulder block to deflect one of Mashiba's flicker jabs, then closed in and performed a cross counter to Mashiba's jaw.
Flicker Jab - to be demonstrate and used for his sparring against Kimura. However Miyata used it for once so that Kimura could learned on how to evade Flicker Jabs against Mashiba for the Champion Carnival Junior Lightweight.
Weaknesses
Miyata's father has pointed out that his regular punches lack power, and Sawamura has said that although his counters are powerful, they are also predictable. Takeshi Sendō also made this apparent by dodging every punch Miyata threw at him during a spar, having realised that he was always aiming for the head. He went as far to say that his fighting style is far too simple for the world stage. Miyata's maybe biggest problem is his stubbornness to use counter-boxing, having no other big punches in his repertoire. Takamura helps to improve Miyata's counters by informing him of his tendency to just use his arms with no rotation, rather than putting his entire back into it. Like Takamura, Miyata often has problems with cutting weight. In addition to this, and possibly as a result of it, he is very susceptible to body blows. It has been stated that Miyata's build should be limited at the junior lightweight and lightweight divisions. As such he kept up a brutal pace of one match a month to keep himself at the maximum allowed weight for the featherweight division.