Akira Toriyama’s cult classic manga Dragon Ball has some of the best and most powerful characters (and fighters) in the world of anime and manga. And while Goku is definitely the most famous one among them, there are other awesome characters that deserve their own comparisons, and we are going to talk about two of them here – Gohan and Kefla. In this article, we are going to determine whether the Goku can defeat Kefla and how he could (not) do it.
And while their first manga clash ended without a clear winner, it is quite probable that Gohan could ultimately defeat Kefla in a fight. He is a better and more experienced fighter with a much larger pool of powers he can access than Kefla has. On top of that, his recently introduced Final Gohan form would certainly give him the upper hand over Kefla.
Now that you have the short version of the answer, the rest of the article is going to be divided into three sections, with the first two introducing the characters, their powers, and their abilities. In the end, we’re going to give our final verdict and explanation on why Gohan would ultimately be able to defeat Kefla in a fight.
Son Gohan and his powers
Son Gohan is one of the main characters in the Dragon Ball franchise. He is a half-breed between a Saiyan and an Earth human. He is the first son of Son Goku and Chi-Chi, older brother of Son Goten, husband of Videl, and father of Pan. From an early age, Son Gohan had innate fighting skills due to his Saiyan blood, as well as an easy understanding of Ki.
As a child, he had a Hidden Potential, which was only revealed when he experienced a fierce rage, and when his rage ended, his power would drastically reduce. He would later wake up again during the battle against Raditz to see his father being hurt, even temporarily besting the enemy Saiyan with a head butt caused by his anger.
As an adult, he shows that thanks to his great intellect he can devise many strategies and combine his Saiyan fighting ability with the ability to quickly detect or read the opponent’s movements.
This ability is manifested in the special Hey! Goku and his friends return when he serves as a mentor for Goten and Trunks or later after having returned to training with Piccolo, he returns to obtain his true potential, even being able to detect the intentions of the evil emperor Frieza in the Tournament of the Strength.
As he grew older, he trained hard and gained access to much of his power, but it wasn’t until he faced Perfect Cell that young Son Gohan’s power was fully awakened and he was able to use it to Will. He even surpasses his father, transforming into a Super Saiyan 2 and saving the world from Cell. Gohan is also the first to achieve Super Saiyan 2 in both the anime and manga. Despite not having trained consistently, Vegeta claimed that Gohan was #1 when it came to potential.
Kefla and her powers
Kefla is the Saiyan fusion born from the union between Kale and Caulifla through the Pothala Earrings of the Kaio-shin Huwa. She first appears in the Universal Survival Arc of the Dragon Ball Super anime and manga, where she is a representative of Team Universe 6 in the Tournament of Power. Vados explains that by fusing with the Pothala she increases the power of the users tens of times, and as Kefla charges up energy, Goku can’t feel a limit to her power.
Her power is not only immense, but her speed as well, enough to quickly surprise a Super Saiyan God Goku and in turn attack him and send him to the ground, only using her base state. When transforming into Super Saiyan, her power is able to maintain a more or less even fight with a Super Saiyan Blue Goku, forcing him to use the Kaio-ken x20 along with the transformation.
Vecause of this, Kefla was in trouble, but manageed to counterattack easily and overpower Goku in this state to the point of knocking him down and causing him to return to his base state from the damage he took. Whis explains that her First Grade Super Saiyan ki is comparable to that of the Genki-dama that Goku Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken x20 threw at Jiren and Kefla herself suggests that she feels she could destroy a universe with the power that lies within her.
However, it is not known if this statement is accurate or was a way of showing off or exaggerating her power before Goku. Piccolo comments that Kefla managed to overcome Son Goku’s previous power, referring to her when she used the Precognitive Selfish Doctrine in her first match against Jiren.
These statements did not come alone, since Kefla continued to increase her power, even being able to transform into Super Saiyan 2, so her power is even greater. At her full power she gained the ability to hold a fight with Goku using the Precognitive Selfish Doctrine for the second time; Goku was much faster, blocking and dodging all her attacks, showing a clear difference in abilities, but he was not able to hurt her with his blows because he still hadn’t mastered that state, although he was able to expel her from the platform with a Kamehameha.
It is implied that Kefla’s power was so great that she could have killed Goku with her Final Weapon if Goku had been hit by the attack, however, it is also implied that the gap in strength between the two is small and they were at a level of comparable power. This suggests that Kefla could have been defeated without much difficulty by Goku if he had completed the Selfish Doctrine at that time.
On the other hand, Kefla would have been able to defeat Goku and kill him if he hadn’t known how to counterattack and dodge his attacks. Vados claims that Kefla has the energy of Kale in Super Saiyan Out of Control and the fighting skills of Caulifla. Thus, she is able to easily wipe out all of the Pride Troopers that face her and cause her elimination (Tupper, Kunsi, Zoirei, Kettle, and Vuon).
This also harms Carsserale and Dispo, who are forced to withdraw. The Universe 6 angel also adds that due to these united qualities, Kefla can become an unrivaled warrior in the Tournament of Power. However, Jiren is not interested in fighting her. Son Gohan is able to easily deflect a charged energy wave from Kefla, when she intended to attack Son Goku and Jiren.
Finally, the mestizo Saiyan shows Kefla that he is just as strong as her and the two fight in a brutal encounter that leaves them badly injured and ends in a double elimination between them.
Gohan vs. Kefla: Who would win?
We could, actually, give you a proper analysis of the things we have written above but that wouldn’t really do the trick when compared with what we have decided to go with. Namely, as Gohan and Kefla have, indeed, fought in the manga, we thought that it would be better for us to just recap this battle and show you how it all played out, while giving some additional comments in the end.
By transforming into a Super Saiyan Out of Control, Kale was able to get the remaining members of the other universes out of the Tournament of Force. However, her power went out of her control, making her movements predictable and losing energy, being surrounded by the Pride Troopers of Universe 11, who were able to put up a fight. Worried, Caulifla drops the Pothala Earrings that she had stolen from the Kaio-shin Huwa, giving them the idea of the merger.
Kale is pulled out of the arena by Tupper, but Cabba dives into her to put the earring in her ear, throwing her back onto the platform and saving her from elimination. Although Cabba was the one who ended up being disqualified from of the tournament, her sacrifice Kefla possible. Kefla springs into action, effortlessly eliminating most of the members of Team Universe 11.
At the end, the warrior was about to extend her winning streak by directly attacking Jiren and Son Goku, only being stopped by Son Gohan. Kefla doesn’t hide her anger and asks Gohan who he is and Gohan replies saying that he is a Saiyan like her, but one raised on Earth, challenging her to a battle.
The two collide in a combat where both use their powers to the limit and are exhausted; even Kefla herself ends up recognizing that fused she couldn’t defeat a simple Saiyan and if she has to lose, she will accept her fate of being destroyed along with Universe 6. Finally, both Kefla and Gohan are mutually expelled from the Place of Survival after receiving a punch the other, ending their fight in a draw, with the fusion unraveling in the process.
As you can see, the fight between Gohan and Kefla was a close one, and counting in the fact that Kefla actually defeated Goku once, she was definitely a formidable foe. Sure, their fight ended in a draw, but Kefla certainly had something to say in this brawl. But, having said all of this, we still think that Gohan would’ve won had the fight been allowed to progress.
Namely, Gohan has more experience and is a more skilled fighter than Kefla. He is extremely versatile, and due to his heritage, he has access to powers that Kefla does not. Gohan’r recently revealed Final Form is a great example of exactly that. With all of that up his sleeve, we’re more than certain that Son Gohan would ultimately be able to defeat Kefla, just like Goku did in their second fight.
