Birthday: August 14, 1975
Homeland: Tokyo, Japan
Occupation: Professional Boxer, Makunouchi Fishing Boat worker
Weight Class: Featherweight
Height: 168 cm (5'6")
Reach: 168 cm (66")
Style: Out Boxer
Stance: Orthodox Stance
Current Affiliation: Kamogawa Boxing Gym
Trainer: Shinoda Tomoyuki
Manabu Itagaki is the gym's newest addition and lives up to the hype—he's got the kind of natural talent that makes people sit up and pay attention. Back in high school, he was captain of the boxing team, and these days he's known for being charming, quick with terrible puns, and genuinely likable. In the ring, though, he's all business: a speedy outboxer with reflexes that feel almost unfair, and his style has drawn obvious comparisons to Miyata's. His signature move is the Hedgehog (or Porcupine, depending on who you ask)—basically a relentless barrage of mid-power shots that he pulled out during his East Japan Rookie Kings fight with Kyosuke Imai, his longtime rival.
When he's not boxing, Itagaki works as an assistant at the Makunouchi family's fishing business, a gig he picked up after Umezawa left to chase other dreams. That job gives him the same kind of daily grind training that Ippo gets. Character-wise, he's clearly based on Oscar de La Hoya—that mix of prodigy-level talent and good looks—and Itagaki has openly said he idolizes the guy.
Before boxing, Itagaki bounced around a bunch of sports, but nothing stuck until he ran into Imai and got shut down. Three times. That lit a fire under him, so he skipped college entirely and joined Kamogawa to train under his idol, Ippo. His big breakthrough came at the East Japan Rookie Kings: he got quick revenge on Makino Fumito (who'd beaten him dirty in his debut) and then faced off against Imai in the finals. The win there seemed to unlock something—his speed, timing, and reflexes are now operating at what people genuinely call genius level.
Current Record
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