Dragon Ball 10 Weakest Villains The ZFighters Lost To

Goku & the Z-Fighters can't win every single battle they participate in, & in some cases, they lost to some pretty weak villains.

A casual fan might be forgiven for thinking it’s always the strongest who wins in the Dragon Ball franchise. Hardcore fans, however, know better. While many battles in Dragon Ball have been determined by strength, some battles have been won by characters who actually aren’t the most powerful--including some of the long-running saga’s antagonists.

In some cases, these villains were weak fighters who found unconventional means of winning. In others, they were foes seen as powerful at the time but were later outranked by the Z Fighters’ ever-growing list of enemies.

10 Cyborg Tao Nearly Killed Chiaotzu

The world believed Mercenary Tao dead after Goku had kicked a grenade back at the assassin. Yet at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, Tao stunned Goku and his friends by returning as a cyborg. Unsurprisingly, Tao’s mechanical upgrades had given his strength a major boost as well, as he revealed by easily taking out his former Crane School pupil Chiaotzu. Yet the cyborg Tao was far less successful against Chiaotzu’s best friend, Tien, who withstood Tao’s strongest attack with ease and knocked his ex-teacher out with a single blow to the stomach.

9 King Piccolo Nearly Killed Goku With The Makosen

Goku quickly earned King Piccolo’s ire by killing Tambourine, just as his new friend Yajirobe had slaughtered another of Piccolo’s spawn, Cymbal. Putting aside his quest to gather the Dragon Balls, King Piccolo tracked Goku down to exact his revenge. Goku caught King Piccolo off-guard with his speed and strength, but the tide turned when the evil Namekian removed his heavy robe.

After taking several blows from King Piccolo, Goku struck back with the Kamehameha, which caused absolutely no damage. King Piccolo then retaliated with his Makosen beam, stopping Goku’s heart long enough for the “king” to steal Goku’s Dragon Ball and leave him for dead.

8 Drum Almost Killed Tien Before Goku Showed Up

Tien had been set on defeating King Piccolo once and for all by sealing him in a rice cooker with the Evil Containment Wave. Rather than fight Tien himself, however, King Piccolo delegated the task to his newest child, Drum. Though not as strong as his father, Drum proved more than a match for Tien. Other than a well-timed head butt, the three-eyed martial artist barely did Drum any damage. Once Drum had knocked Tien on the ground, King Piccolo ordered him to pull out Tien’s heart, but Drum was stopped by Goku’s timely arrival.

7 Tambourine Killed Krillin

After Goku’s match with Tien at the World Martial Arts Tournament, tragedy struck when he found Krillin dead by Tambourine’s hand. Krillin’s death was part of a grander scheme set in motion by the evil King Piccolo to murder past participants of the tournament, so that none could challenge him as Masters Roshi, Shen, and Mutaito had done years earlier. Tambourine killed a number of other former World Martial Arts Tournament contestants and even blew up Goku’s Flying Nimbus, but he went down easily when Goku faced him in a proper fight.

6 Tien Broke Yamcha’s Leg At The World Martial Arts Tournament

Before joining the Z Fighters, Tien was actually a villain, as well as Master Shen’s top student. Tien faced Yamcha at the World Martial Arts Tournament, impressed that the former Wolf Bandit had strength to back his bravado. Yamcha then surprised everyone—including his martial arts instructor and fellow Turtle School students—by attacking Tien with a Kamehameha. Yet Tien had a surprise of his own, and easily deflected the Kamehameha right back at Yamcha. Though he successfully leapt over it, Yamcha’s luck quickly ended when Tien knocked him back down and landed right on Yamcha’s leg, breaking it and thus winning the match.

5 Mercenary Tao Blasted Goku & Left Him For Dead

Tao certainly isn’t Goku’s strongest opponent ever, but he was a big step up from the Saiyan’s previous challengers, able to withstand Goku’s Kamehameha Wave with only his clothes getting damaged. Furthermore, Tao countered Goku’s famous attack with the Dodon Ray, a beam which, though shot only from Tao’s finger, rivaled the Kamehameha in power.

The assassin's Dodon Ray struck Goku square in the chest, seemingly going through the Saiyan’s heart. Tao then departed with three of the Dragon Balls Goku had collected, unaware that Goku had been shielded from the Dodon Ray by the four-star Dragon Ball, which he’d had hidden in his uniform.

4 General Blue Pummelled Krillin After Getting A Nosebleed

Technically, General Blue was one of the strongest members of the Red Ribbon Army, but he paled in comparison to the many powerful foes Goku and the gang fought later on. Nevertheless, he gave Krillin quite a wallop during Dragon Ball’s Red Ribbon Army Saga.

At first, Krillin managed to get a few hits in, but when he hit Blue hard enough to make his nose bleed, the general’s vanity took over, causing Blue to knock Krillin into a wall of rock. Luckily, Goku arrived just in time, moments before Blue was about to smash Krillin’s face with a large rock he had found.

3 Bandages The Mummy Beat Up Yamcha Until He Surrendered

Bandages was a lot stronger than Fortuneteller’s Baba’s first two fighters, but he was not the strongest. Still, he didn’t need to be to defeat Yamcha, easily exceeding the young martial artist’s speed and strength. Despite being outmatched, Yamcha nearly won by knocking Bandages toward a pool of acid, but the mummy rescued himself by using one of his bandages as a rope. Unable to withstand Bandages’ continued barrage, Yamcha surrendered.

Though Bandages did at one point imply he’d throw Yamcha in acid, he showed a more heroic side in the Dragon Ball Z anime, donating energy to power Goku’s Spirit Bomb against Kid Buu.

2 Spopovich Ruthlessly Beat Up Videl

The gap between Videl’s strength and that of the average Z Fighter was fairly big, but she was still an incredibly gifted martial artist. Had she fought Spopovich under normal circumstances in the World Martial Arts Tournament, she likely would have defeated or even killed him, especially after twisting Spopovich’s neck with a kick. However, the Majin power-up Babidi had magically bestowed upon Spopovich made him far stronger and more resilient than the average human, allowing him to counter Videl’s moves with a merciless barrage of attacks. Had Yamu not ordered Spopovich to stop, Videl may not have survived.

1 Fangs The Vampire Defeated Krillin Through Blood Drainage & Ringout

Fangs was the first fighter in Fortuneteller Baba’s tournament, who compensated for his lacking strength with guile. When fighting Krillin, Fangs turned into a bat, zipping around too fast for Krillin to see before becoming human again and sucking a large amount of blood from Krillin’s head. Fangs then easily defeated the weakened Krillin by kneeing him out of the ring.

Unluckily for Fangs, he soon lost to two significantly weaker opponents, namely Upa and Puar. Upa managed to scare Fangs away with garlic breath and by imitating a crucifix, while Puar knocked him out of bounds by turning into a giant hand.