For decades, the internet has been a coliseum of sweaty keyboards and caffeine-fueled debates over who would win in a fight in matches like Superman vs. Goku, Goku vs. Naruto, Goku vs. a toaster with ki-blasting capabilities—it never ends. Entire Reddit threads have combusted over how many solar systems Goku can bench press if he’s angry enough and whether Saiyan hair color equals win potential.
But no matter where your fanboy loyalties lie, there’s one matchup that isn’t even up for debate. Saitama doesn’t fight Goku. Saitama deletes him. Not because Goku’s weak — he’s a god-tier alien warrior with muscles in places humans don’t even have places. But because Saitama exists as the punchline to the very question. He’s not just stronger than Goku — he’s stronger than the concept of power scaling itself. And here are ten reasons why:
1. Saitama’s Entire Gimmick Is That He Can’t Lose
Let’s start with the obvious: the central joke of One-Punch Man is that Saitama wins every fight in exactly one punch. Hence the name One-Punch Man. His universe literally bends to ensure this happens. Goku might be able to throw hands with a god of Destruction or two, but Saitama is a narrative black hole where drama goes to die. Goku’s power level may be too much for a Saiyan Scouter to calculate but Saitama’s power level is so far beyond that, it is pretty just whatever it needs to be to end this in a single frame.
2. Saitama Doesn’t Need to Scream to Power Up
When Goku powers up, the surrounding area gets destroyed, time slows, and the audience has to go take a bathroom break. Saitama powers up by raising his eyebrow slightly. He doesn’t need Super Saiyan, Ultra Instinct, or God Mode – he just shrugs and gets it over with like he’s remembering he left the oven on. And he wouldn’t need to take any extra measures to reach max power, either. It wouldn’t take three whole episodes for Saitama to gather enough energy to throw some special ability at Goku. He would just stand there, let Goku pummel him without taking a single digit’s worth of HP of his own health bar, and then wonder whether he can make it to CostCo to grab a $5 rotisserie chicken before the warehouse closes.
3. Goku Would Want a Good Fight – Saitama Wouldn’t Give Him One
Goku has a fatal flaw: he wants his enemies to get stronger. He lets people live, throws senzu beans at genocidal space tyrants, and begs opponents to power up to their max just so it’s more fun (the safety of the world be damned!). On the other hand… Saitama? The dude just wants to go home, microwave some noodles, and watch late-night TV. He has no chill because he doesn’t need any. He’d throw one punch, Goku would be vaporized, and Saitama would yawn halfway through it.
4. Saitama Survives Moon Launches Like They’re Side Quests
Remember that time Saitama got knocked to the Moon? He didn’t panic. He didn’t charge up. He just jumped back to Earth, and casually re-entered the atmosphere without breaking a sweat or even a cape stitch. Goku needs a spaceship to go to other planets. Saitama treats interstellar travel like LeBron treats a Fisher-Price hoop.
5. Saitama Doesn’t Have a Limit – Goku Keeps Hitting New Ones
Every time Goku gets a new form, it’s a revelation. Oh no, now it’s Super Saiyan Blue Ultra Whatever. Meanwhile, Saitama doesn’t have forms. His entire “form” is bald guy in a yellow jumpsuit who’s been holding back this whole time. If they fought, Goku would keep leveling up – and Saitama would just be waiting for him to stop monologuing so he could go back to playing video games with King.
6. Saitama Breaks the Fourth Wall With His Strength
Saitama doesn’t just punch through monsters — he punches through tropes. The point of his character is that he’s a parody of every overpowered anime protagonist ever… which, yes, includes Goku. He’s a walking satire with fists that could punch a hole through the spacetime continuum. And let’s not forget that while Goku keeps facing challenging foes, Saitama’s greatest nemesis is remembering which store is having a two-for-one sale on seaweed snacks.
7. No One Has Ever Survived a Serious Punch From Saitama
Goku has lost fights before. To Raditz. To Frieza. To Cell. To a heart virus. Saitama? Every opponent he’s ever faced, from crabs in underwear to planet-busting demigods, has crumpled like cotton candy in a tsunami. When Saitama finally decides to use a “Serious Punch,” the sky splits open. That’s not a metaphor — he literally split the atmosphere with a punch.
8. Saitama’s Emotions Wouldn’t Get in the Way
Goku is strong, yes. But he’s also sentimental, reckless, and occasionally dumb as a bag of senzu beans. He’d give Saitama the benefit of the doubt. He’d want to “see what he’s made of.” Saitama? Saitama wouldn’t care. He’s not fighting for honor, vengeance, or a tournament trophy. He’s just mildly annoyed and wants the noise to stop.
9. Saitama Doesn’t Even Know How Strong He Truly Is – And That’s A Scary Thought
Goku trains nonstop. He pushes himself to the brink in a literal hyperbolic time chamber. Saitama? He did 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10km run every day for three years and became the most powerful being in fiction. He doesn’t even fully grasp the depth of his own power, which is terrifying, because it means there’s no ceiling. He’s not training to get better. He’s already the best, and he’s bored because of it.
10. Saitama Wouldn’t Even Need to Punch Goku — and Goku Would Thank Him for It
Saitama is the kind of guy who ends world-ending threats the way you might swat a mosquito… if you even bothered. But here’s the twist: he also has a sixth sense for when someone isn’t a real threat, just a nice guy looking to throw hands. He’s spared people by letting them punch themselves into exhaustion, trip over their own ambition, or just fall apart from existential dread. The man doesn’t need to flex when your dignity will collapse on its own.
And Goku?
Goku is exactly that kind of guy. He’s pure of heart, loves a good challenge, and wouldn’t dare try to kill someone just for being stronger — especially not someone who’s clearly just trying to get back in time for grocery day specials. After five minutes of shadowboxing air and realizing Saitama hasn’t even blinked, Goku would do what Goku always does when he meets someone way out of his league: ask for training. Saitama wouldn’t just win — he’d reluctantly gain a student.
Final Verdict: Saitama wasn’t designed to win a fight — he was designed to end fights. Goku might be Earth’s strongest warrior, but Saitama is what happens when the universe gets tired of powering people up and just sends in the final boss to shut it all down. The fact of the matter is that Saitama is written to be stronger and invulnerable to any single hero, villain, army, squad, league, legion, whatever you can think of all at once. Sorry, Toiryama bros, it doesn’t matter how many hours you yell at each other on Discord chat over this topic. Your boy just isn’t gonna cut it, not even close, against the likes of Murata’s bald badass.
