One-Punch Man: Saitama Has Actually Lost Multiple Fights!

Were it not for the protagonist, Saitama, One-Punch Man would probably not be as popular. And while Saitama might, objectively, be a gag character, he is still special enough for us to actually discuss his powers and abilities seriously. Known as the One-Punch Man, Saitama has – at one point in his life – decided to become the strongest person on the planet, and currently, it seems that he is exactly that. Saitama seems invincible and there is a very solid theory that he cannot be defeated. We won’t be discussing that theory precisely, but we are going to tell you whether Saitama has lost a fight in One-Punch Man or not.

Has Saitama ever lost a fight in One-Punch Man?

In this section, we are going to go over all of Saitama’s battles from all the One-Punch Man works, as per One-Punch Man Wiki. There are going to be a lot of spoilers here, so be careful, but this was the best way to actually show you how effective Saitama is and why he is such a cult classic character. The battles are going to be organized based on the source they are taken from and his losses are going to be bolded:

Before the start of the series (shown in different chapters and episodes throughout the series):

Main manga/anime series

Additional manga chapters and OVA

Audiobooks

Original One-Punch Man webcomic (spoiler-heavy)

When did Saitama lose a fight?

So, if we put aside the video and regular game losses, Saitama has lost only two fights, both of which happened before he became One-Punch Man and early in his life and career. In this section, we are going to tell you what happened in these two fights. Both of them actually happened in the “200 Yen” extra chapter that was published alongside Volume 1, with the original release date being December 4, 2012.

This extra chapter is actually quite short and it only reveals fragments from Saitama’s past when he was a 12-year-old middle schooler. Among the scenes shown in the chapter is one where two delinquents, known as the Ripped Uniforms, ask weaker kids for their money. At one point, the two also stop Saitama and drag him out to the schoolyard, where they demand his money. Saitama does not want to give it to them and prepares for a fight, but had his butt kicked, as well as money taken, easily.

Not long after that, a Mysterious Creature, whose existence had been foreshadowed earlier in the chapter, approaches them and takes the Ripped Uniforms’ money, including the money they had taken from Saitama. The mysterious creature is revealed to be Piggy Bancon.

After this happens, one of the delinquents states that he won’t be able to pay for his little brother’s lunch, to which Saitama – surprise, surprise – reacts. He gets up and chases after Piggy Bancon to get the money back for the delinquents who had beaten him up. That’s Saitama for you. He did catch Piggy Bacon and wanted to fight it, but was quickly knocked down and stayed like that for about an hour. After that, he went back to school. And these are the only two known instances in which Saitama was defeated in a fight in the whole series, but this was a 12-year-old Saitama and not One-Punch Man.