Ring ni Kakero is one of Weekly Shōnen Jump's best-selling manga series, with over 13 million copies sold.

In Ring ni Kakero 1, the characters are briefly introduced, telling the story from the moment Ryuuji and Jun Kenzaki (his eternal challenger and supposedly best friend) fight for the National Boxing Title and having both achieved stardom.

Afterward, most of the series tells about Ryuuji being the successor of Kenzaki (as the latter was terribly injured and almost crippled), who competes in the Japan National Boxing Championship, where he encounters strong and deadly opponents, including Ishimatsu Katori (a comic relief, but also a strong fighter), Takeshi Kawai (who specializes in the upper jab technique; he is also a pianist and also likes to cheat) and Kazuki Shinatora (who specializes in the Rolling Thunder technique; he is a former kendo practitioner, who retired when he challenged his father due to his cruel training).

Blackshaft had no intention of taking Japan seriously in a boxing match so he recruits Mick, leader of the Great Angels New York Branch (originally the Hells Angels in the manga), a deathrow inmate Monster Jail, Missie Charnel, a mysterious androgynous boy boxing champion known for his unhealthy obsession with his own beauty that knows no bounds (even in the ring) as well as that in which he savors reducing the "pretty" faces of any opponent he faces in the ring into mush, along with hypnotic powers that he casts upon his opponents to leave them as sitting ducks for his attacks and high-speed punches and fancy footwork, and N.B.

The second season ends with The Shadow clan, formed by a boxer who used the sweet science as an assassination art, aiming after Team Japan.

Ring ni Kakero 2 tells the story of Kiku and Jun's son, Rindo Kenzaki, who is raised by Katori Ishimatsu after losing both of his parents.

[11] A fifth season was planned but was canceled due to the death of the series character designer and animation director Shingo Araki in 2011.

[12] Ring ni Kakero is one of Weekly Shōnen Jump's best-selling manga series of all time, with over 13 million copies sold.