The WBC Champion is in Japan for the match against Date-san. He chose Ippo as his sparing partner. Ippo came in confident but the 3 rounds was not finished and Ippo was standing unconcious. Takamura told him to say sorry for the old man but when he arrived at the gym, guess what he saw? Date san was on a sparring match. And his partner? The newly crowned OBPF Champ Miyata. He was as usual, starstrucked to see Miyata. They realized that they still have a long way to go to be world champions.

Finally, Miyata has won the matched and has become a champion in his own right as OBPF champion. The Japanese boxing scene has created quite a stir since a lot of matches were won by Japanese. Takamura was seeded #2 in a title match and Date Eiji will be up for a WBC title match as well.

As Aoki have said it, my heart stopped while watching the fight.

Round 2, 3 &4 of the fight. In round 2, Miyata almost got down 2x. Good thing the ref decided that it was just a “slip”. Aoki said that his heart almost stop and Ippo’s soul can be seen coming out. Haha. Miyata got angry on the secound round when he’s counter was defeated, he was not able to think clearly and instead choose to fight until the last second. Arnie saw his determination and was impressed by his courage. He even fired his manager for only thinking about business and the only good thing he did was choosing the best challenger for him which was Miyata. The episode ended with a hard counter from Miyata.