Luffy vs. Akainu: Who Would Win in a Fight?

One Piece is an anime that certainly has its fair share of strong and powerful characters. And while its protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy, is certainly among them, there are some characters that might be even more powerful than the cheerful and quirky protagonist of the manga. In this article, we are going to analyze one such potential character, as we are going to pit Luffy against Akainu, or Sakazuki, the current leader of the Marines against whom Luffy holds a grudge, to see who the stronger of the two is.

Sakazuki would be a very tough opponent for Luffy, but Luffy would manage to defeat Akainu in a fight. Akainu is not as strong but he fights dirty and that tends to give him an advantage over a lot of his opponents. Still, with the true powers of his Gomu Gomu no Mi unlocked and having activated Gear 5, Luffy would manage to defeat the leader of the Marines.

The rest of this article will further elaborate on the above-given answer, as we are going to compare Luffy and Akainu in more detail. 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 Luffy would ultimately be able to defeat Akainu in a fight.

Physical powers

Luffy is endowed with immense physical strength, enough to lift gigantic boulders and shatter steel with his bare hands. His physical strength derives in part from the workouts his grandfather Garp subjected him to as a child, where he survived critical circumstances and used to face huge ferocious beasts. Even as a child he was able to defeat grown-ups and endure Polchemy’s torture.

His physical strength is such as to overwhelm the strongest fugitives of the eastern sea and to rival even that of the fish-men, as demonstrated in the battles against Arlong and Hody Jones, whose strength was even higher than that of the average of their race. . In particular against Hody, after two years of training, he showed himself clearly superior, so much so that he defeated him despite being powered by Energy Steroids.

During the War on the Summit, Sakazuki displayed tremendous physical strength, such as when he stopped the massive Newgate’s Bisento with a single leg. He is, altogether, a powerful hand-to-hand fighter who combines the abilities of his lodge to gain enormous destructive power. Among his achievements are the defeats of Inazuma, Ivankov, or Jinbe and, above all, his victory against Kuzan in their duel for the rank of admiral of the fleet, although both suffered serious injuries in it.

Sakazuki has enormous durability in combat, as shown by having withstood two very strong earthquake blows at Whitebeard’s point-blank range—one of them bisecting the land of Marineford—and being able to continue actively in the war, subsequently fighting against Sakazuki, the commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates and two former Warlords of the Sea, Crocodile and Jinbe.

His durability also extends to attacks imbued with Busoshoku Haki, as neither Marco nor Vista were able to deal any significant damage to him with it. Sakazuki also has extremely acute hearing, being able to hear underwater activity before the war against Whitebeard began.

We cannot deny that Akainu has defeated some amazingly strong opponents over the years, but with Luffy having activated Gear 5 and being confirmed as Joy Boy, we’re quite sure that Luffy would win.

Points: Luffy 1, Akainu 0

Devil Fruit

Luffy ate Gomu Gomu Devil Fruit which made him rubber, giving him the ability to stretch his body parts and hit enemies from a long distance. Although as a child he had problems in fully controlling his power, after intense training of over ten years, Luffy was able to use the fruit to exponentially improve his physical strength and his agility, thus making him a dangerous opponent.

Despite his fighting style sometimes appearing improvised, it is precisely his creativity that makes him an unpredictable opponent, capable of overturning critical situations by adapting from time to time to combat. His rubber body also makes him extremely durable and immune to marine bullets, normal punches, and even electricity.

However, he is not immune to swords and knives, as well as to dehydration or poison, although after the fight with Magellan he becomes immune to a wide variety of these.

Akainu possesses the Magu Magu no Mi, a Logia-type Devil Fruit that grants him the ability to turn his body into magma and manipulate it at will. As a Logia-type fruit user, Akainu can let physical attacks pass through him unharmed and can only be harmed with the help of Haki, the Sea Granite, having his guard down and by his weakness.

Apparently, Akainu knows about Haki and found some ways to avoid Haki attacks, even after Marco and Vista sliced ​​him in the neck with Haki-infused attacks. His ability is naturally more powerful than Ace’s pyrokinetic abilities, since the heat of magma is stronger than that of fire. He finally manages to kill Ace thanks to the natural superiority of his power.

Akainu’s Devil Fruit allows him to go after the likes of Emporio Ivankov and Jinbe with minimal effort. During the 10-day battle on Punk Hazard for the position of Admiral-Commander-in-Chief, Akainu once again demonstrated the furious power of his Devil Fruit, as he turned part of Punk Hazard into a veritable furnace.

The Magu Magu no Mi is a powerful and practical Devil Fruit but with Luffy possessing every prerequisite to counter its effects, we have to give Luffy this point as well. On the other hand, Akainu doesn’t have much to counter Luffy’s newly-discovered divine powers.

Points: Luffy 2, Akainu 0

Haki

Luffy was trained by Rayleigh to become an expert Haki user. He knows how to use the Observation Haki, which he instinctively used for the first time against Mihawk, avoiding a swing that would have cut off his arms. He also mastered the Armament Haki at high levels, making it an essential part of Gear Fourth. Using this ability in combination with the powers of his own devil fruit, Luffy is also able to ignite his fists thanks to his friction.

He also knows how to use the rarest form of Haki, the Royal Haki, which is the one he prefers. With it, he was able to knock out fifty thousand fish-men at once. During his confrontation with Kaido, he proved to be one of the very few individuals able to use her to enhance his attacks. His third fight against the emperor also ripped through the sky.

It was stated that all vice admirals possess Haki, so, being one rank above vice admirals, Akainu can use this ability as well. He was seen using his Armament Haki to nullify Whitebeard’s attempts to destroy the execution platform by creating, with the help of his fellow admirals, a pairing shield of their three Haki. He also has Observation Haki.

There is no proof that Akainu can use all three types of Haki, which – ultimately – means that Luffy wins in this category as well, as he is able to use all three types of Haki.

Points: Luffy 3, Akainu 0

Weapons

Luffy rarely uses weapons in combat, mostly due to his inexperience and the inability to use them. In his childhood, he wielded a metal pipe and that is probably the most sophisticated weapon he successfully handled. In Arlong Park, Luffy briefly tried to fight with swords but failed miserably.

Sakazuki seems to have some knowledge of swordsmanship, as in his youth, he was seen wielding a red katana.

Although Akainu doesn’t rely on weapons as much as some other characters, he has the necessary knowledge to triumph against Luffy in this category.

Points: Luffy 3, Akainu 1

Luffy vs. Akainu: Who would win?

First of all, let us start off by saying that this would be one of the most epic battles in One Piece and we do think that Oda will give us the pleasure of seeing it in the manga and the anime series. Secondly, while the points are clearly in Luffy’s favor, the difference in each category is not that big and Luffy would certainly have to give it his best to defeat Akainu.

Now, with his new powers (Gear 5), Luffy was able to defeat Kaidou. And while we’re quite certain that Akainu wouldn’t be able to defeat Kaidou, Akainu is known for fighting dirty and being one of the more despised fighters in the world of One Piece. Akainu is powerful, that cannot be denied, and he has some great powers and is tactically skilled, but where he lacks in skill, he manages to compensate by fighting dirty.

Of course, his opponent is Luffy, the guy who survived a lot of things and a lot of fights, and Luffy the same Luffy who was – in the meantime – activated Gear 5 and unlocked the true powers of his Gomu Gomu no Mi, becoming – practically – invulnerable in his new state. There is little that Akainu could do to hurt Luffy in a direct clash and that is, actually, why we have Luffy as the winner in this case.

Luffy would certainly be able to counter Akainu’s dirty fighting, and knowing that Akainu is not as strong as Luffy is at this moment, we’re quite certain that Luffy would take this one.