That could be but I fully upgraded Mikey to where he has more time to activate his counter before the actual attack hits him and it still doesn't help 3/4's of the time. And trying to counter while attacking someone is near impossible because you're pretty much into the combo and unable to stop attacking and turn around in time. Really the only way to perform counter is to anticipate attacks and when you're being attacked by 5 guys, it's not easy.
I'm wondering if anyone has contacted the devteam about all this stuff.