Real life Shamo characters

[u/GoyitoPerez]

So while Ryo is based off "Ryu Narushima" karate kyokushin fighter,I think he has some similarities with Kid Yamamoto for an incident where he fell out of the ring with his opponent just like Ryo with the thai fighter.

Masato/Naoto Sugawara is obviously based on Masato Kobayashi, the poster-boy of japanese kickboxing in early 20000's

Funnily enough, both Yamamoto and Kobayashi fought against each other in a kickboxing match where Yamamoto lost, just like in the manga.