Ricardo Martinez

Boxing Abilities

Ricardo's countless thoughts while fighting Miyata

Ricardo is the most powerful featherweight in the world and ranks first place in the "POUND for POUND" rankings.[30] He is described by Takamura as being "out-of-this-world" and on a totally different level and Dankichi as well as Minoru Fujii consider Ricardo to be the greatest boxer of all time.[31][32] His speed, power, stamina, and reflexes are described to be otherworldly. He is particularly renowned for his punching power and perfected technique. In his spar against Ippo, he proved capable of knocking Ippo unconscious in less than one round when he was already the JBC champion, using only his left jab. However, his greatest strength are not his physical attributes but his unparalleled skill and boxing intelligence. He almost never takes a punch simply because he can see every attack coming and predicts his opponents moves.[33] This is showcased in his fight against Billy McCallum, who realises Ricardo would have countered him whenever he attempted to go on the offensive, leaving him no choice but to turtle until Ricardo broke through his guard. Miyata compares Ricardo's ability to almost simultaneously process hypotheses, predictions, convictions, and executions at high speeds to being able to peek into the future and believes he has innate calculation ability.[34]

Likewise, Ricardo's skill is refined to unprecedented sharpness and the press also gives him the name "Omega" for refining the fundamentals of boxing to their absolute limits. With nothing but textbook boxing, he was even able to overwhelm the instinctive and wildly unpredictable Wally. He was able to do this by correctly analysing that even 'unpredictable' punches have predictable target zones and further use Wally's extraordinary reflexes against him by making him move in predictable directions.

Ricardo's usual fighting style is an orthodox strategy of sticking with tight, efficient punches that quickly wear opponents down, then hit a major left or right ending the match. In particular, his left jab is suggested to be unparalleled in the world. It is noted to shoot out like a bullet, with no motion betraying its start, consistently using the shortest possible path to find its target and penetrating far beyond it, like a spear. It is both fast enough to catch even the extremely agile Wally and strong enough to knock out boxers like Ippo or break through McCallum's guard.

Cautious by nature, Ricardo traditionally uses the first round to check his opponent out and rarely makes the first move. In truth however, Ricardo can be passionate at times and is not afraid of going on the offensive when sufficiently challenged. It is implied by his trainer that Ricardo was a more aggressive and violent boxer in his earlier years. This is shown when he is pushed by Date, where Ricardo launched into his older tactics of using wild, uncontrolled but devastating precise swings that will destroy the opponent's guard. Date learned this the hard way when Ricardo broke two ribs, shattered his jaw, and destroyed his right hand. Before his fight with Date, Ricardo mentions that he "was fighting for his duty of defending the belt" and that his style was not a natural one. However, in round four of his fight against Date, Ricardo stated that he would fight in his natural style, a style possessing faster pace and rhythm that led to Date's downfall and complete retirement from boxing. Ricardo has no Sunday punch.

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Techniques

Weaknesses

As of yet, no boxer has been able to exploit or reveal any weakness in Ricardo. When using his orthodox style, he is on a level higher than any other boxer in the featherweight division, and in his older, more aggressive style, he is capable of easily overwhelming the most skilled boxers. Despite many of his fights being short, he does not appear at all fatigued, even in the 10th round of his fight against Date. Ricardo also has little experience against boxers considered to be "wild" and has shown trouble when facing them. Takeshi Sendō was the first person to down him, and Wally managed to push him even harder than Date as not only was he unable to do anything in the first 4 rounds, but Wally managed to do real damage, becoming the first known opponent to make Ricardo bleed.

While not a weakness per se, Ricardo admits that he has no 'super-human' qualities to him, such as Wally's extreme agility. Therefore, he has no choice but to stick with the basics and use an ordinary style.[35]

It should be noted that because he didn't start off his second bout with Date in his natural style, Date was able to briefly overwhelm him.