Ricardo Martinez is currently the only &#039;Super Champion&#039; in the series. He has the longest title run in the series, with 21 defenses of his WBA Featherweight Title over a decade. He became WBA Featherweight Champion at the age of 21. His fame is so great, even those in Mexico who don&#039;t know the President&#039;s name knows his name. Ricardo&#039;s strength far exceeds that of the other known featherweights. His power is on par with Ippo&#039;s; his damage retention allowed him to take several heavy blows from Date without any lasting damage; his jabs are able to stop Ippo&#039;s Dempsey Roll and knock him unconscious on their own. For reasons unknown, he has always stayed in the WBA and never tried to become undisputed champ, leaving the massive number of World contenders avoiding him to scramble for the WBC belt. George Morikawa listed Martinez as the second strongest character in the series (behind Takamura). Ricardo Martinez is based on Ricardo Lopez, one of the few boxers to retire undefeated.

Makunouchi Ippo has been bullied his entire life. Constantly running errands and being beaten up by his classmates, Ippo has always dreamed of changing himself, but never has the passion to act upon it. One day, in the midst of yet another bullying, Ippo is saved by Takamura Mamoru, who happens to be a boxer. Ippo faints from his injuries and is brought to Takamura boxing gym to recover. As he regains consciousness, he is awed and amazed at his new surroundings in the gym, though lacks confidence to attempt anything. Takamura places a photo of Ippo&rsquo;s classmate on a punching bag and forces him to punch it. It is only then that Ippo feels something stir inside him and eventually asks Takamura to train him in boxing. Thinking that Ippo does not have what it takes, Takamura gives him a task deemed impossible and gives him a one week time limit. With a sudden desire to get stronger, for himself and his hard working mother, Ippo trains relentlessly to accomplish the task within the time limit. Thus Ippo&rsquo;s journey to the top of the boxing world begins.<br><br>
(Source: MAL Rewrite)

Ippo Makunouchi continues his boxing career and his goal on knowing the meaning of being strong, and the desire on fighting his idol Ichiro Miyata once again. Along him are pro boxers Takamura, Aoki and Kimura that each one of them aspire to their own dreams.
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(Source: Anime News Network)