Goku vs. Saitama: Dragon Ball vs. One Punch Man (Who Would Win)

“Can Saitama beat Goku though?” This is one of the questions that a lot of Dragon Ball fans kept on asking like crazy when someone posts an overpowered character over social media and forums. Well-known powerful anime characters such as Uchiha Madara, Whitebeard, Gol D. Roger, Gildarts, and Escanor have been analyzed thoroughly by fans but failed to see if they can beat Goku though. But Saitama, A.K.A. One-Punch Man, has been a long-running contender in this endless battle of anime character power measurement to finally beat everyone’s favorite Saiyan.

While Saitama certainly is a powerful character, he couldn’t really defeat Goku, no. He could defeat a weaker Goku from years ago, but at this point in his life, Goku is simply so much above Saitama’s level that the protagonist of One-Punch Man couldn’t really do much against him. Goku wouldn’t even have to resort to his most powerful form to beat Saitama, although he would have to put in a lot of effort.

This is a crazy battle that every fan would love to watch if only there’s a means for authors of Dragon Ball and One-Punch Man to make a one-shot out of it. The rest of this article will further elaborate on the above-given answer, as we are going to compare the characters through several categories; you are going to see who the stronger of the two is and why our answer is like it is, i.e., why Goku would, according to our analysis, be able to defeat Saitama.

Strength and durability

Son Goku is one of the strongest characters in the series, rivaling Vegeta for the position of the most powerful Z Warrior and Universe 7 warrior. At birth, his power was two units. Arriving on Planet Earth at the age of three, Grandpa Gohan realizes that he is incredibly strong and that it would have been dangerous for him if he were not an expert in martial arts.

Thus, he took it upon himself to mold him and train him in martial arts. Also compared to most humans, including those trained in the ki arts, Son Goku possesses a great deal of strength, speed, and stamina. For example, when he was a young child, he could lift a car over his head and throw it with ease, and during his training with Kame-Sennin Goku he could push massive rock formations that would at least weigh over 100 tons.

At the height of his strength, he displayed the ability to destroy mountains, islands, and even heavily damage entire planets with physical force alone. Goku usually uses techniques based on ki, using them in a fight as support, defense and attack such as the Kamehameha, these are performed through the control and mastery of ki, born from the creativity and skill of the character.

Saitama possesses disproportionately large physical strength and is thus able to effortlessly defeat powerful monsters and villains with a single blow. One punch from Saitama is so powerful that many enemies simply explode or disintegrate when hit. He is also shown to be able to effortlessly destroy large structures.

An example of this offensive power is when Saitama launches himself from the top of a building to head to hit the Giant Meteor. A “normal” punch from him has proven fatal to a being as durable as Boros. Saitama has also shown that he is capable of controlling the force of his attacks, but still tends to overdo it on occasion, causing massive devastation.

And while it might be a question of debate whether basic-form Goku is stronger than Saitama (i.e., whether he could withstand his punch), most of Goku’s advanced transformations are on a much higher level than Saitama’s powers. Goku was able to survive a fight with Beerus, where Beerus would trash Saitama like an insect. This is why Goku wins the points in this category.

Points: Goku 1, Saitama 0

Speed

In terms of speed, Goku displayed supersonic speeds even faster than light when he reached the Saiyan Saga. By the time he became a Super Saiyan God, his speed had reached speeds massive than the speed of light and his physical strength was enough for one of the shockwaves from his punches to be felt throughout the universe, damaging incalculably and destroying many planets and stars. Up to this point, just four hits between Beerus and Goku were enough to completely destroy the universe.

Saitama was able to complete a 1,500 meter race in an instant three times in a row during his hero trials. He has been shown capable of maintaining a much faster speed than Sonic, who is capable of moving at hypersonic speeds. Even Genos’s computerized location systems have a hard time tracking him due to how fast he moves.

Saitama has also shown the ability to run down a building to save a piece of salmon he had for lunch and jump back up to said building without anyone noticing that he had done so.

He was able to easily dodge some of Boros’, Gouketsu’s and Orochi’s extremely fast attacks, and even managed to dodge some of Garou Monster’s attacks, as well as being able to face the powerful Golden Sperm. Ironically, despite his incredible reflexes and speeds he still has trouble swatting a simple mosquito or picking up an object like a helmet or hammer when playing rock-paper-scissors.

This one amounts to the same arguments as the one above. Goku is incredibly fast, but in his base form, we don’t assume that he is particularly faster than Saitama. But, as he transforms, Goku actually becomes faster and, in that aspect, he becomes faster than Saitama. This is why these points go to Goku as well.

Points: Goku 2, Saitama 0

Stamina and endurance

Goku’s body is much more durable than normal human beings, being essentially invulnerable to all Earth-made weapons. However, while he is naturally durable thanks to his Saiyan physiology, he has limits, as other powerful beings like himself can hurt, and potentially kill, him if he doesn’t defend himself properly.

Saitama has never been shown to tire from fighting villains. Even when he unleashed a punch more powerful than a planet-destroying attack, Saitama showed no signs of fatigue. The only time Saitama was shown to be panting and out of breath, he recovered only a few seconds later.

This is a category where we couldn’t really determine the winner, which is why we ultimately decided to split the points. Both Goku and Saitama are extremely durable and, from this standpoint, seem to be invincible. Sure, Goku has died on several occasions, whereas Saitama has not, but Goku ultimately coming back stronger each time is why we couldn’t really disregard him in this category.

Points: Goku 3, Saitama 1

Fighting style

He is an expert in martial arts, taught under the style of the Turtle School; he is known to be close to a prodigy, managing to learn techniques and levels of strength that other individuals would take time to learn, he even knew how to use skills such as reading minds without even know how to do it.

Goku has been shown to use different parts of his body to help him in combat, such as shooting a Kamehameha with his feet, using his eyes to launch a ki laser beam in the Frieza Saga among other examples. Son Goku is a born martial arts expert and fan, managing to read his opponents’ movements and get used to his attacks and speed.

Usually in combat, Goku reserves large amounts of strength and restrains himself to the point of apparently lowering his ki level to absurdly low points in order to conserve energy, however, he also demonstrated the ability to unleash his full power just in the nick of time. second in which he launches a physical attack.

As a Saiyan, Goku is able to use the Saiyan Power, which allows him to surpass his strength whenever he takes large amounts of damage or fatal wounds. Goku being an alien also has enhanced senses of smell, taste, and sight, which further enhances his combat senses.

Due to his incredible superhuman physical condition, Saitama is an extraordinarily powerful and dangerous fighter in close combat. After three years of intense training and fighting countless criminals, Kaijin, and evil organizations, he not only gained unparalleled power, but also developed a wealth of combat skills through combat experience.

Due to his boredom, he often uses poor attacks that lack finesse or flair; However, once serious, he becomes a very competent and cunning fighter.

Saitama uses basic fighter moves and street fighting techniques to grab and knock down his enemies, having excellent battlefield awareness, and is able to read the moves of highly skilled warriors such as Boros and Garou, the former being a universal emperor, with centuries of experience and the latest a martial arts prodigy.

Well, in all honesty, we pondered a lot about this category. Namely, Saitama is a master martial artist and although some of his opponents did manage to make him add some effort to his fights, he is ultimately the best. On the other hand, Goku’s skills evolved over time and we had to evaluate it properly, mostly because Goku’s powers grew along with his transformations, not necessarily through improving his martial arts skills. But, then we remembered that he held his own against Beerus, which was enough for us to split the points in this final category.

Points: Goku 4, Saitama 2

Goku vs. Saitama: Who would win?

And now for the most important and interesting section of our article – the analysis. Here, we are going to use what we have found out about these two characters and analyze how all these facts would (or would not) help them in a fight against each other. Let us continue.

Now, with the points in, they seemingly confirm what we’ve said above and we cannot deny that Goku would, indeed, be able to defeat Saitama. He has much more experience, he is stronger than Saitama, faster than Saitama and is on par with him in other fields. Also, Goku has mastered numerous techniques and skills that Saitama cannot really mimic, and it is not known how he would actually cope with them, since they’re more than anything he has fought up to this point.

But, we cannot really ignore Saitama here, despite the points. Namely, Saitama is – as far as we know – invincible and Goku would have a hard time defeating him in battle. In all honesty, we’re quite certain that Saitama would be able to defeat Goku in his base form and in some of his weaker forms. Saitama is simply that good.

Ultimately, it all comes down to the fact that Goku becomes more powerful with every one of this individual transformations. At one point, he surpasses Saitama and with each additional transformation, Goku simply continues to expand the difference between Saitama and himself, ultimately becoming more and more powerful. This is why we had Goku win this one.