Ippo's never really been the sort of fighter with overwhelming belief in himself, though. His style has always been to put his faith in his training and he's never really had much of a champion mentality. Most of his early title defenses had him take on the challenger mentality. No matter how much training he's done, Ippo's just not a guy who would have the kind of certainty that he's the only one who could beat Ricardo, for instance, so I don't think we'll ever really see that. Kamogawa has hinted that he believes that may be possible, especially once the Dempsey Roll takes on its final evolution.
And I actually think strengthening his basics is a sign of progress more than anything. When Takamura sent his challenge to the world, it wasn't by beating his opponent with a big attack, but by calmly dismantling his opponent with nothing but his left. And in Ippo's match with Karasawa, he calmly and methodically backed him into a corner and picked him apart, which led to Kamogawa believing that he was ready for the next level.