Giants. Robots. Drgons.
Gods…. Clowns… literally no one is safe from being taken down by Monkey D. Luffy.
The hero of One Piece has spent decades punching some of the most punchable faces ever to appear in manga and anime and today we’re talking about every single character that Luffy has defeated throughout the story. And the very first thing Luffy did when he set sail as a pirate was punch the lights out of the Lord of the Coast. He finally got his revenge on the Sea King that took Shanks’ arm in the form of a knuckle sandwich - and in doing so he finally proved he wasn’t the same kid he used to be.
Luffy was ready to be a real pirate. After a poorly timed whirlpool, Luffy found himself barreling toward the Alvida Pirates…literally. After meeting his most pink friend and future Hero of the Marines, Koby, Luffy set the unwilling cabin boy free by punching his boss - the most beautiful pirate on the seas other than Boa Hancock - right into the sea.
After that, Luffy ran into some opposition while trying to recruit his first crewmate. ****A lot of fans remember Luffy fighting Axe-Hand Morgan after freeing Zoro on Shells Town. However, Zoro was actually the one to finish the corrupt captain off.
In one of the biggest low diff matchups of all time, Luffy actually defeats Helmeppo, who was threatening Koby with a pistol. And then immediately after that battle, Luffy beat up Koby, in order to give the marines of Shells Town the impression that they aren’t actual allies. After all, what kind of ally would beat the snot out of one of his best friends?
[whispered] (It’s the kind who wants you to live out your dreams) Moving over to Orange Town, Luffy came face to face with the Lion Tamer Mohji and Richie the Lion. And while Richie probably should have been caged, it was actually Luffy who found himself locked in a cage on this particular occasion. However, nobody can keep Luffy locked up, especially when he needs to fight on behalf of Chou Chou, one of anime’s best dogs.
Luffy couldn’t settle for simply beating up Mohji. He needed to fight his boss. This was Luffy’s first fight against a fellow devil fruit user, making it a real challenge, but once Luffy and Nami managed to tie up all of Buggy’s body parts, Baby Buggy didn’t stand a chance and he got Gum-Gum Bazooka’d into the stratosphere.
By the time the crew arrived in Syrup village, Luffy had already taken out a lion so Certified Cat Boy Captain Kuro didn’t stand a chance. Kuro’s claws were sharp, but Luffy’s wits were sharper…Okay, that’s not accurate - Luffy doesn’t have any wits. His strategy was actually just so dumb it actually worked.
He wrapped his rubbery limbs all around Kuro so he couldn’t use his speed to his advantage and then gave him the headbutt to end all headbutts in the form of a Gomu Gomu no Bell. All that Syrup Village business really worked up an appetite, so Luffy and the gang’s next stop was the floating restaurant, Baratie. Unfortunately, they weren’t the only ones who showed up without a reservation.
Along came Don Krieg, who led the largest fleet in all of the East Blue. After Drcule Mihawk sliced up his fleet and ships in the Grand Line, he tried to take the Baratie for himself. However, despite his underhanded tactics of using poison, spikes, cannons, and more - he couldn’t compare with Luffy’s brute strength and was wiped out.
With Don Krieg defeated, there was only one pirate left in the East Blue who was more powerful and infamous: Arlong. This sawshark fishman gave Luffy his most difficult fight yet, but the stakes were personal. The fight ended in the map room where Arlong had tortured Nami, forcing her to draw maps since her childhood.
He brought down Arlong and his entire park with a Gum Gum Axe. Entering the Grand Line, Luffy wouldn’t take another W until Little Garden where he went up against the Candle Man Mr 3 - whose real name is Galdino, it turns out. Most of the crew was nearly turned into a Wax Museum, but Luffy Waxed On and Waxed Off until Galdino was Gal-decimated.
On Drm Island, Luffy dethroned Wapol, a cruel king with a bad case of the munch-munchies. This was the first monarch Luffy would punch, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last and in doing so he turned the Drm Kingdom into a democracy when Dalton was elected the leader of the newly dubbed Sakura Kingdom. And Luffy went from beating his first king to his first Warlord, when Luffy defeated Crocodile in round 3 of their fight.
After being knocked down twice by the sand user, Luffy beat him up using nothing but his own blood, sweat, and tears…but mostly his blood, which hardened the logia user’s sand and allowed him to be battered right through the ceiling of the Tomb of the King. The crew’s next destination was Jaya, where Luffy was able to demonstrate how much he’d grown to resemble his mentor, Shanks. When Bellamy picked a fight and made fun of Luffy’s dreams, he sat there and took it because he wasn’t worth the trouble.
But when Bellamy hurt one of Luffy’s friends, then Luffy got serious. The spring-spring man bounced all around Jaya, but Luffy didn’t need to use his devil fruit at all. All it took was a single punch to break Bellamy the Hyena’s spirit.
Once Luffy and co found themselves on Skypiea, they went up against Enel’s Priests. Luffy helped Sanji out against Satori, but Sanji made the finishing blow. Luffy’s real battle on the island was against God.
Or at least, somebody who considered himself a God. Enel had never met an opponent who wasn’t instantly incinerated by his lightning strikes, but was in for a huge surprise when Luffy’s rubber body was completely immune to his attacks. Even without his lightning, Enel still put up quite a fight using his observation haki, which he called “Mantra.
” However, in the end Luffy defeated him and rang the bell in the City of Gold. The next opponent was back on the Blue Sea on Long Ring Long Land, when Foxy the Silver Fox challenged the Straw Hats to a Davy Back Fight. In the final round of the game, the two captains had a one v one match up.
However, Foxy’s Slow-Slow beam was so hard to deal with that it took Luffy’s ultimate form to defeat him: Afro Luffy. Despite Foxy’s tricks and traps, nothing could defeat the boxing prowess of Afro Luffy, and he won the round. The next opponent was even more difficult for Luffy to fight than the near- invincible Foxy.
However, this one wasn’t physically difficult, it was emotionally difficult. On Water 7, Usopp challenged Luffy for the ownership of the Going Merry, the crew’s ship that needed to be replaced and suffering extreme damage on their adventures. Usopp used all of the resources and knowledge he’d gained about Luffy’s weaknesses throughout their adventures, but ultimately was completely outclassed by his captain’s strength.
When the crew stormed Enies Lobby, Luffy’s first victim was the CP9 agent Blueno, who ate the Door-Door fruit. However, even for someone who can make doors anywhere, there was no escape from the insane speed of Luffy’s Gear 2. The fight against Blueno was Oda’s way of showing off the strength of Luffy’s new Gear techniques before Luffy fought his real opponent of the arc: Rob Lucci.
This leopard zoan fruit user gave Luffy his toughest fight yet. This CP9 Power House was willing to carry out any order on behalf of the government, all to satisfy his immense bloodlust. Lucci devastated Luffy with the secret techniques called the Six Powers, particularly his strongest attack: The Rokuogan.
However, Lucci finally met defeat on the receiving end of Luffy’s Jet Gatling Gun. Before leaving ****Water 7, Luffy’s grandpa showed up to crash the party, leading to a quick rematch with Koby. As everyone would predict, Koby didn’t stand a chance - but he sure is getting stronger, though!
Luffy’s next terrifying opponent was on the horror-themed island of Thriller Bark. The Warlord Gecko Moria resurrected his ultimate zombie, Oars, from the body of a fearsome Ancient Giant. Things looked bleak for the Straw Hats, but Luffy took a ton of shadows into his own body in order to transform into Nightmare Luffy and crushed Oars.
Up next was Moria himself, the next Warlord to fall to Straw Hat Luffy. Even when Moria used Shadow’s Asgard to suck 1,000 shadows into himself and boost his strength, he wasn’t able to beat Luffy. With every punch, Moria spit up shadows, unable to control the power of so many at once.
After that fight, though, nothing happened on Thriller Bark. When the crew arrived at Sabaody Archipelago, they were ready to tackle the New World. Unfortunately, those plans went sideways when they went to rescue their mermaid friend Camie from a slave auction.
****When the Celestial Drgon St. Charlos shoots Hatchan, Luffy does the morally correct thing that anyone should do when encountering a slave owner and punches him into oblivion. After Kuma gives Luffy an all-expenses paid trip to Amazon Lily, he finds himself in Trial by Combat against a black panther.
But as the real King of the Jungle, Luffy showed Bacura the panther who’s boss. After that, Boa Hancock’s sisters Marigold and Sandersonia went up against Luffy. Luffy probably would have taken a definitive victory, but the match was called off when Luffy went out of his way to hide the Mark of the Celestial Drgons on the Gorgon Sisters’ backs from the women of Amazon Lily, thus stealing Boa’s heart for life.
For the whole Marineford Saga, Luffy was way out of his element. He took out a lot of fodder in Impel Down, but he failed to take out any big opponents. Luffy was truly in his L era here.
However, the ever-dependable Koby was there as always to be taken down by Luffy in one hit. And technically, Luffy did also knock out his own grandpa, Garp the Hero of the Marines. I mean, Garp didn’t fight back whatsoever…but still, he did knock him down on the way to the executioner’s stand.
After taking a couple years off to power up, Luffy was back in business when he returned to Sabaody Archipelago and took out the Pacifistas that used to give him trouble like they were nothing. While descending to Fishman Island, Luffy made friends with a giant kraken the only way he knows how…by punching it as hard as he could. However, he wasn’t trying to make friends when he punched Hody Jones, the leader of the New Fishman Pirates as hard as he could.
The battle against Hody Jones proved just how much stronger Luffy had become over the timeskip. Hody Jones was powered up by an insane amount of Energy Steroids, and was fighting against a fishman while underwater…even though he was a devil fruit user. And even with that massive handicap, Luffy took him out and destroyed the giant ark, the Noah, with his Red Hawk and Elephant Gun techniques.
The Straw Hats’ next destination was Punk Hazard, where Luffy lost the first round to Caesar Clown who deprived him of oxygen using his devil fruit powers. However, in round two of the fight, Luffy figures out Caesar’s trick and learns the distance he has to stay away in order to keep breathing. Luffy clowns on this Clown with his awesome Grizzly Magnum technique.
After Punk Hazard, Luffy partnered up with Trafalgar Law and the allies went to take down Doflamingo. Well, actually they went to destroy the Smile factory so that Kaidou would take down Doflamingo, but we all know how well Luffy can follow a plan. So instead, Oda brought us to a gladiator match where a suspiciously familiar contestant named Lucy fought to try to get the Mera Mera no Mi that once belonged to Ace.
At the coliseum, Lucy, who was shockingly revealed to be Luffy in disguise easily brought down the giant Hajrudin, who would go on to join his Grand Fleet. He also fought an old pirate named Don Chinjao who was once a rival of Luffy’s grandpa, Garp. Despite Luffy having nothing to do with that old conflict, Chinjao held a grudge and wanted to take it out on Luffy.
This gave Luffy a chance to practice his conqueror’s haki and with a powerful punch, he gave Don Chinjao the pointy head he missed so much back. After Chinjao, though, came the first real test of Luffy’s strength since the timeskip. Everyone Luffy fought to this point, he hadn’t had to give his all, but Doflamingo pushed him to the limit, forcing him to reveal his new ultimate technique: Gear 4.
Base Luffy couldn’t keep up with Doflamingo’s crazy strength and speed, but once he transformed into Gear 4, Bounce Man wiped the smile off of Doflamingo’s face and he defeated the Celestial Drgon and ended his terrible reign over Drssrosa. Cracker After Drssrosa, the crew set their eyes on the Four Emperors. In order to save Sanji, Luffy invaded Big Mom’s territory of Whole Cake Island.
In order to get him back, Luffy had to take down two of her Sweet Commanders. First was Cracker, the warrior who fought with hardened biscuit soldiers. Unfortunately, Cracker couldn’t make enough biscuits to deal with Luffy’s appetite.
After eating his fill, Luffy used those extra calories to turn into Tank Man, and Cracker got cooked. Katakuri Luffy’s hardest fight yet, though, came in the form of Katakuri - the future sight master who could predict his every move. Katakuri’s stretchy mochi fruit gave him the mirror image of Luffy’s own powers, which was fitting since their fight took place in the mirror world.
Over the course of their long battle, Luffy developed his observation haki, allowing him to see briefly into the future. The battle almost ended in a draw, with both fighters seemingly down for the count, but Luffy was able to get back up and escape Whole Cake Island with his crewmates. In act I of Wano, Luffy’s first opponent was the Sumo champion Urashima.
Despite Urashima’s superior weight class, he was no match for Luffy. This lion-bellied Gifter on Kaidou’s crew was also outclassed by Luffy, who defeated him with a Red Hawk attack, reminding O’Tama of Luffy’s brother Ace. Of course, none of these battles on Wano really required Luffy to go all out.
None except the person you’ve all been waiting for: Kaidou: The World’s Strongest Creature gave Luffy the fight of his life. Kaidou’s draconic transformation and command of advanced conqueror’s haki made this emperor more powerful than any foe Luffy had fought before. In fact, Kaidou was so strong that he defeated him twice and then seemingly literally killed him after that.
Unfortunately for Kaidou, that led to Luffy awakening his devil fruit. After that Gear 5 Luffy went Looney Tunes, using dragon form Kaidou as a jump rope and sending the King of Beasts to the magma beneath Wano’s Mt. Fuji.
With this battle, Luffy truly became Joyboy’s successor and earned his title as one of the Four Emperors of the Sea. After the Land of Wano, the crew headed to Egghead Island where they reunited with some old rivals: Rob Lucci and Kaku, who had been promoted to CP0. These guys seem to fail upward just as much as Buggy.
Even though Rob Lucci had also awakened his zoan fruit just like Luffy, he just couldn’t keep up with the wild abilities of Gear 5 and was at a disadvantage when Stussy ended the fight by putting Lucci to sleep. A much more suitable opponent for Gear 5 Luffy is the admiral who showed up after CP0: Kizaru, who demolished the crew alongside Kuma two years prior at Sabaody Archipelago. However, now Gear 5 Luffy can fight the Light Fruit user on roughly equal footing, the match ending essentially in a draw with both fighters immobilized.
But if this match was a tie, what about the matches that Luffy outright lost? Most of the time through sheer willpower, Luffy is able to pull ahead and beat characters many times stronger than himself. However, on surprisingly numerous occasions on One Piece he’s been fully and utterly defeated.
How many times? And by who? Well, you can find out exactly when and how Luffy has lost throughout the series in this video right here.