As an infant, Kakarot was sent to planet Earth to destroy it. But, he didn’t destroy it. In fact, he became the world’s greatest protector, training to become a powerful warrior who could stop all threats to his adopted home planet.
Just because he’s the strongest warrior in this (or any other) universe, doesn’t mean he’s actually that great of a fighter. In fact, Goku is kind of the worst. Sure, he’s saved the world and defeated powerful enemies, but there have been times within the Dragon Ball franchise that make us question Goku’s so-called fighting skills.
During a few fights in Dragon Ball and with almost every major villain battle in DBZ, Goku was only able to win with outside help or by using one of his many deus ex machina-type techniques. Honestly, when you take a closer look, Goku might not be that great of a fighter.
Though the Earth can always rely on him when it’s in danger, Goku is not the great and powerful fighter we perceive him to be. Where is our proof, you ask?
Well, take a look at 15 Fights That Show Goku’s Actually The Worst.
15. TAMBOURINE
One of the greatest threats that Goku ever faced in the original Dragon Ball series was the reign of King Piccolo.
Before he faced the ever overlord himself, Goku fought with his winged son, Tambourine. Goku faced the mutated Namekian twice, and the first time didn’t go so well. In fact, up until the King Piccolo saga, Goku seemed to be unstoppable.
Once he finally faced an opponent who was better than him, it showed just how poor of a fighter he could be.
Now, to be fair, Goku was weak from fighting Tien, so he wasn’t at full power or stamina, but a loss is still a loss.
It’s just one of the many on this list that show Goku isn’t as strong as he seems at times.
KING PICCOLO
Like with Tambourine, Goku faced King Piccolo twice, and though he defeated him the second time around, his first go at the villain didn’t turn out that well.
To put it bluntly, King Piccolo completely annihilated Goku, leaving him beaten and on the verge of lifelessness. No, seriously, Goku’s heart stopped and everything.
During the fight, Goku managed to force King Piccolo to the ground, and King Piccolo admits as much when he says Goku is a skilled fighter, but his assessment was kind of off.
The fact that King Piccolo was able to beat Goku even in his old age showed both how powerful he was and how poor of a fighter Goku was at the time.
Luckily, Goku was saved by Yajirobe and was able to recover enough to defeat King Piccolo later on.
RADITZ
Like we said, most of Goku’s victories came from some sort of last ditch effort, something that was especially true in his fight against his brother, Raditz.
Raditz was unbelievably powerful when he first showed up; a Saiyan warrior hardened by years of experience in conquering planets for Frieza. Because of all the foes he faced, Raditz was much stronger than his little brother, making him too hard to take on alone.
When Goku fought against Raditz, he needed help, which came in the form of Piccolo.
Goku managed to weaken Raditz a bit by grabbing his tail, but the only way to actually defeat him was by holding him down so Piccolo could fire a special beam cannon through the two of them.
What, he couldn’t get out of the way?
GREAT APE VEGETA
Goku’s battle against Vegeta is another example of him winning through, for lack of a better term, “unfair” methods.
Goku’s tail had been cut off a long time ago, so when Vegeta created an artificial moon to turn into a Great Ape, the fight became much more difficult.
Leading up to this, Goku fought pretty well, doing enough damage to Vegeta that he was desperate enough to use his Great Ape Form, but once he did, Goku was unable to keep up the fight.
To be fair, this would be a tough fight for anybody, but if Yajirobe was able to cut off Vegeta’s tail and return him to normal, that says a lot about Goku’s (lack of) fighting skill.
Seriously, maybe Yajirobe should have been the one to fight Vegeta in the first place.
CAPTAIN GINYU
Goku tends to use tricks or otherwise unexpected special techniques to win his battles, but he’s also been on the receiving end of a special power that turned the tide in a rather unfair way.
When Goku fought against Captain Ginyu, he lost his body to Ginyu’s body-switching technique.
Even worse, Captain Ginyu injured himself so that Goku would be weakened after they switched.
Though this tactic was cheap and underhanded, the fact that Goku left himself open enough to the attack shows his lack of fighting skill.
Despite all the training that he did on the way to planet Namek, he still fell victim to Captain Ginyu’s attack and temporarily lost his body in the process.
Heck, the newfound strength he gained from his training only served to make his power seem more appealing to the body-switching villain.
ANDROID 19
This one is less of a comment on Goku’s fighting ability and more of an example of his stubborn foolishness, but we’re still going to count it, since it shows how he’s just the worst.
When Future Trunks came to the past to warn about the arrival of the Androids, he said that Goku was going to perish of a heart virus and leave the world without a protector. Thus, Trunks brought medicine with him to prevent Goku’s passing.
However, Goku, being the fool that he is, turned down the medicine, which ended up being a huge mistake.
During his fight with Android 19, Goku suddenly collapsed from chest pains.
The heart virus had gotten to him just like Trunks said it would.
Seriously, Goku? You had the medicine right in front of you!
CELL
There were two points in the Cell games where Goku once again proved he’s the worst.
The first was during his fight against Perfect Cell. He seemed to be able to hold his own in the fight and might have been able to beat him, but then, he suddenly gave up and told Gohan to fight Cell.
If that wasn’t enough, he also gave Cell a senzu bean so Cell could be at his best when he fought Gohan.
This is a really shady move on Goku’s part and it wouldn’t be the only dumb thing he ended up doing at the end of the Cell saga.
When Cell was about to self-destruct, Goku used instant transmission to bring him far away from Earth, which was a smart move - but couldn’t he have brought him somewhere other than King Kai’s planet and couldn’t he have gotten away before the explosion?
MAJIN VEGETA
Whenever fans argue that Vegeta is stronger than Goku, they often quote the fact that Goku has never actually won a fight between the two. In every instance when the two fought, Goku only won with outside help, making Vegeta the technical victor.
In their clash during the Buu saga, Vegeta shows Goku that he is indeed the better fighter, completely annihilating his long-time rival in one of the greatest fights of the series.
The fight showed that, while Goku might have been stronger, Vegeta is the better fighter because he is far more skilled, experienced, and is much better at planning. Furthermore, Goku didn’t use Super Saiyan 3 in their fight, a grave mistake that resulted in his defeat.
Seriously, does Goku know anything about how to win?
MAJIN BUU
Speaking of using Super Saiyan 3, when Goku first broke out this form, he once again showed he’s the worst when it comes to making decisions in dire situations.
While Trunks was off retrieving the dragon radar, Goku set it upon himself to distract Majin Buu. He did this by showed Buu all the Super Saiyan forms, including Super Saiyan 3, which he used to fight the villain.
This fight showed us just how powerful Super Saiyan 3 was, and though Goku could not keep up the form for long, if he was a better fighter he could have probably ended the whole Majin Buu conflict right then and there.
Not only did Goku take his sweet time fighting in Super Saiyan 3, thus using up all his time and energy, he also just gave up because he wanted Goten and Trunks to defeat Buu.
RESURRECTED FRIEZA
Now we’re getting into Goku’s worst fights from Dragon Ball Super, though this one was also seen in Resurrection F.
Everything about Goku’s fight with a resurrected Frieza was just further evidence that Goku is the worst. Not only did he get completely annihilated by Frieza’s new Golden form, but he didn’t tag out when he had the chance.
Vegeta wanted a go at Frieza, but Goku claimed he almost had him, despite the fact that he was getting beaten.
Furthermore, Goku was holding back in the fight, which is always such a ridiculous move. Why does he always hold back when the fate of the world is at stake?
Because of his incessant desire to play with and test his enemies, the world was actually destroyed. If it wasn’t for Whis, then that would have been permanent.
FROST
Goku’s fight against Frieza’s alternate universe counterpart was about as bad as the real deal. During the tournament against Universe 6, Goku was pitted against Frost, and the fight ended rather quickly. What happened exactly?
Frost used an underhanded technique, hitting Goku with a poison-tipped needle that was part of Frost’s body.
As underhanded as this technique was, there are two things about this battle that made Goku seem like a terrible warrior. The first is that Goku’s Saiyan biology should be able to handle whatever poison was introduced to his system. And second, even if the poison was made for a Saiyan specifically, Goku should still be an experienced enough fighter to spot a trick like that from a mile away.
Frost should have never had the chance to even use the needle if Goku was a better fighter.
HIT
Because of Frost’s underhanded techniques, Goku was given a second chance to fight in the tournament against Universe 6, one of his fights pitting him against the assassin, Hit.
Hit’s power to skip through time proved to be a difficult obstacle to overcome for Goku, who got his butt whooped from most of the match. But, why exactly?
Sure, Hit could skip forward in time, but he couldn’t predict the future and Goku still has the power of a god on his side. How did Hit know where to hit Goku and why wasn’t his speed while using Super Saiyan Blue enough to dodge these attacks?
Goku managed to overcome the time skip temporarily, but Hit still won in the end - probably because Goku is still bad at fully utilizing his power.
CAULIFLA AND KALE
Most of the fights in the Tournament of Power had one major flaw: the power scaling. Throughout the battle royale, characters who had the power of gods were outclassed by gimmicky superpowers and lower-tier transformations. One example of this was when Goku fought against Caulifla and Kale, both separately and when they teamed up and eventually fused.
Why were two amateurs able to temporarily get the better of him?
Sure, Goku’s energy was drained by his first time using Ultra Instinct, but it still should not have been so difficult for Goku to defeat the Saiyan women. Though he might not have had the energy to go Super Saiyan Blue or even Super Saiyan 3 at first, he’s still a much more experienced fighter than Kale and Caulifla when it comes to using a Super Saiyan form.
RIBRIANNE
Another example of the Tournament of Power’s weird power scaling was when Goku fought Ribrianne.
Ribrianne is a magical girl-styled warrior from Universe 2 who uses an arsenal of love-based powers instead of relying on martial arts skill and power levels. While this did serve to make the Tournament of Power more interesting by showing diversity amongst fighting styles, it ultimately just made Goku look weaker when he fought her.
Every point during the Tournament in which the two clashed put them on the same level of skill of power, which just seems off, knowing that Goku can turn into a god-like being.
Goku barely used any Super Saiyan forms against Ribrianne, which once again makes us question his fighting strategy.
Furthermore, Ribrianne fought hand to hand with Goku, which made the power scaling seem even weirder, knowing she could fight like a martial artist as well.
JIREN
Last, but not least, we have all of Goku’s encounter’s with Jiren. Look, don’t get us wrong, these fights were amongst the best in Dragon Ball Super, and the way that Goku overcame Jiren’s god-surpassing power was absolutely awesome, but therein lay the problem.
Goku was only able to take on Jiren using the Ultra Instinct transformation, which gave him the power to rely only on his body’s instinct, giving him perfect offense and defense.
The problem is that this means Goku’s basic fighting ability, his skills as a martial artist, are so poor that he actually had to achieve a form that did all the fighting for him.
Vegeta didn’t need Ultra Instinct to take on his opponents in the Tournament of Power, but Goku was so bad at fighting he needed a way to get instantly better.
Are there other fights that Goku should be ashamed of in Dragon Ball? Let us know in the comments!
