Saitama vs. All Might: Who Takes the Fight?

Comparing the overpowered Saitama, the protagonist of One-Punch Man, with other characters is always fun. Whether it’s a comparison from his own universe, like the ones we’ve done (Blast, Boros, Garou, God), or some other fictional universe (like the ones with Superman, Gojo, or Goku), it’s always fun to see how Saitama would do against some other characters. This time, it’s going to be a comparison from the latter group, as we are going to compare Saitama to All Might, the principal hero of My Hero Academia, to determine who would win in a fight between these two very powerful characters.

Saitama would be able to defeat All Might in a direct fight. Although the worlds of One-Punch Man and My Hero Academia are different, they are still similar enough for the comparison to be much easier, and we can objectively evaluate that Saitama’s powers are above All Might’s. All Might is not a deity and he has no exceptional powers that could actually harm Saitama, which is why the One-Punch Man wins this one.

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 Saitama, a.k.a. the One-Punch Man, would be able to defeat All Might in a direct clash.

Saitama and his powers

Saitama is a young inactive person who’s lost interest in life and who frequently fights mysterious beings to become a powerful hero. His main attack is the famous “One Punch”, a simple punch that can defeat very powerful enemies like the King of the Seas, Ashura Rhino, the King of the Underworld, a gigantic meteorite, and many more.

Saitama is blessed with spectacular speed. A ninja-like Thundering Sonic looks slow next to him. He is able to complete a 1,500-meter course in an instant; even Genos’ computerized targeting systems have a hard time tracking him. He can use his speed to run vertically along a building to save a piece of salmon he intended to eat for lunch.

Even Boros in Meteoric Boost is slower than him. His basic speed is already sufficient to avoid the saber attacks of the famous ninja Flashy Flash. Saitama can take all kinds of impacts or flames without taking a single bruise. When Genos created a huge explosion by his Incineration to kill Mousmétique’s mosquitoes, Saitama stood beside him completely unscathed and unperturbed despite the heat of the flames.

To make him move, as soon as he decides to stay still, even a man as powerful as Suiryû has a hard time managing to make him move back a few meters with his Nebulous Fist of the Rabid Tiger. When he was still a weak human, Saitama was as tough as an ordinary human. As an adult, he was able to get up with a nip from Crabotaur, a Tiger-level monster, and then attack him.

Saitama doesn’t aim better than an ordinary person. In particular, he has been wrong in his estimations, such as when he unintentionally punched Sonic in the genitals instead of only intimidating him. Saitama puts a little more effort into his techniques when using the Worship Streak Series. According to Boros, even so, he only shows a small part of his power. Still, the power at this stage is enough to outsmart a Dragon-level or even God-level scourge very easily.

All Might and his powers

Toshinori Yagi, better known as All Might, is a fictional character from the My Hero Academia manga, created by Kōhei Horikoshi. He also appears in the anime adaptation of the manga and in the films My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (2018) and My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising (2019). All Might is the first and most powerful hero and the “symbol of peace” who inspired a whole generation of heroes, including Izuku Midoriya, to whom he passed the One for All. All Might is known for his cheerful, smiling personality and public image of him as the undisputed number one hero, but his time for heroism was growing shorter, a fact known only to Izuku. His career as a hero came to an end after one last fight with All for One.

The One for All, which he inherited from Nana Shimura, gave Toshinori access to superhuman strength by enhancing his agility, speed, and reflexes while also giving him the ability to jump extremely high. Toshinori was an extremely powerful Pro Hero, recognized as the “symbol of peace”. He was able to defeat Nomu, who was created specifically to counter him. Toshinori also defeated All For One, an extremely powerful villain who once ruled Japan, making him the only One For All wielder to achieve such an achievement.

The amount of time he can use his abilities is drastically decreased after he defeats All For One as it inflicts a blow to his stomach. After passing One For All to Izuku, his time limit began to decrease even more and he completely lost his power after the second battle with All For One, however, he could still transform into his Hero Form for a few hours. Toshinori’s Detroit Smash was capable of not only defeating a Villain but also changing the weather. He was able to destroy entire buildings with a single punch while carrying heavy weights.

In general, his strength was comparable to that of a nuclear weapon, as he is able to completely dispel Cumulonimbus clouds with one shot while launching Nomu into the atmosphere. Combined with his immense strength, Toshinori possessed equally impressive speed. Toshinori had incredible stamina as seen during the attack on the USJ, where he was able to block and resist multiple attacks from Nomu. This resistance of him can also be seen during the Final Test Saga where Toshinori managed to resist several explosions caused by Katsuki without being damaged.

Toshinori’s personality is extremely charismatic, closely resembling the stereotype of an American hero personality. He was very friendly, and outgoing and always saved people with a big smile. When he returned to his real form, he tended to be less energetic, constantly spitting up blood, and also avoided drawing attention to himself, fearing that others might find out about his current health. However, both in hero and true form, his optimism and loyalty always remained the same.

Although he denoted joy, he is extremely protective of his students, especially Izuku, managing to show his fury when he discovered that the villains attacked the students just to get to him. Although he is an exceptional hero, as a teacher he leaves a lot to be desired, although he never stops striving to be a good teacher for his students and a good tutor for Izuku, he is constantly seen preparing his class in advance, and according to Ashido; he “he can’t give classes without reading his notes”.

Professor Aizawa was able to notice a book in Toshinori’s pocket titled “even fools can be teachers”. Gran Torino, Toshinori’s former teacher, also comments that he is a terrible teacher for not being able to teach Izuku how to use his power well. Even Toshinori himself accepts that he is not a good educator in his letter sent to Gran Torino where he talks about his successor and that he should soon bother him to give Izuku a good education. After all, he only accepted to be a teacher of the UA to be able to be close to Izuku, his successor, to guide and train him.

Saitama vs. All Might: 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.

Comparing Saitama and All Might was much easier than you’d think. Namely, with One-Punch Man and my Hero Academia both relying on fighting and superheroes, the overall structure of these two worlds is quite similar. And while the world of One-Punch Man is a gimmick work, with lots of irony and exaggeration, whereas My Hero Academia takes itself more seriously, the overall structure is still similar enough to make this comparison much easier than you’d think. This is why it wasn’t really difficult to compare the characters and determine the winner.

This is why it was not that difficult to objectively evaluate Saitama’s powers and abilities in comparison to a My Hero Academia character, even if All Might is an example of a character who is extremely overpowered (but hey, so is Saitama). The main problem here was that All Might was never a gimmick character, whereas Saitama is, even within the context of his own gimmick-inspired world. But, this was only a minor setback, as we were successful in our endeavor, and here is what we have to say.

In a comparison of powers and abilities, Saitama surpasses All Might. The two characters – despite Saitama’s gag nature – have a very similar set of powers and abilities, and both of them are basically extremely powerful superheroes, and that is why it was possible for us to make an objective comparison of their powers and determine the winner.

If we look at what All Might was able to do, we notice that he is an extremely skilled fighter. He has been able to defeat the strongest villain of his world and is far above all the others thanks to his Quirk. But, his Quirk… in comparison to Saitama’s powers and abilities, makes him simply more powerful. It does not give him divine or extremely supernatural abilities that Saitama could not counter. Saitama would be able to withstand anything that All Might would throw at him because of his superior speed and resistance.

On the other hand, All Might would have a lot of trouble facing off against Saitama simply because Saitama has achieved such a level of power that All Might couldn’t really cope with it. He is not actually durable enough to withstand Saitama’s punches, as some characters, and he would ultimately go down in this fight. This is why we have Saitama as the winner here.