Top 10 One-Hit KOs In One-Piece

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be looking at the battles from the anime and manga “One Piece” that concluded with one decisive attack. To be clear, to qualify, these have to be actual fights - otherwise that epic Celestial Dragon knockout would definitely warrant a mention!

Luffy’s older brother Portgas D. Ace reunites with him at Alabasta after a long absence. Since entering the Grand Line, Ace has become extremely powerful. However, their time catching up is interrupted by the Billions, members of Baroque Works, the crime syndicate hounding the Straw Hats. Eager to take down someone of Ace’s reputation, several ships worth of Billions attack them. Ace decides to take them on himself. Hopping in his little flame-powered boat, the Whitebeard Pirates commander leaps over every ship. He then proceeds to decimate them all with a single fiery attack! The Billions may not number in the billions, but it’s still an impressive feat!

When Luffy enters a gladiatorial tournament in “disguise,” the fights are often fast and frantic. The chaos also leads to unexpected friendships. One of these is Luffy, excuse me, “Lucy” befriending a wild bull. After taming “Ucy,” Luffy has fun riding the violent beast. But, when Ucy charges into Hajrudin, a literal giant contestant, the bull gets flattened. The crowd may be shocked that “Lucy” is unharmed, but we’re not - he’s made of rubber. And also, in this moment, rage! Going Gear Second, Luffy zips up to Hajrudin’s face level and knocks his massive foe out with one speedy punch! Hajrudin may be taller, but Luffy is the bigger contender!

Speaking of the Corrida Colosseum fights, one of the other blocks sees a massive melee between characters old and new. Amid all the fighting, one man stands out for throwing no punches - King Elizabello II. Protected by his men, Elizabello bides his time charging up for one massive attack. At last, at the climax of the fight, the king unleashes his King Punch, whose shockwave blows away every other competitor - or so it would seem! Bartolomeo, the crowd’s least favorite, blocked the huge blast with his barrier powers. Tanking Elizabello’s blow is impressive enough, but Bartolomeo follows that up by knocking the king out by turning his shield into a battering ram! The king is down, long live the jerk!

Widely regarded as the strongest man in the world, Whitebeard can positively wreck house, even in his old age! At the battle of Marineford, the giant vice admiral John Giant tries to stand in his way, to delay his advance to rescue Ace. However, Whitebeard blocks his attack easily, and then uses his quake powers to literally tip the island, knocking John, and everyone else on the battlefield, off balance. Although the giant is still willing to fight, Whitebeard hits him with a massive quake punch that takes the vice admiral down, whose shockwave it takes three admirals to stop!

Usopp is almost universally considered the weakest of the Straw Hat Pirates. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t managed to knock out some opponents with one hit! Sugar is a child-like member of the Donquixote Pirates whose powers have turned thousands of pirates, citizens, and Marines into toys. To free them all, the plan is for Usopp and the dwarves to feed Sugar a grape with a spice so potent it could knock her out and undo the transformation. Unfortunately, Usopp is easily defeated. But when Sugar feeds the grape to Usopp, his over-the-top, eye-popping yell freaks her out so much that she’s knocked out anyway! He even knocks her out again using his sniping skills later! As expected of the man with 8000 followers!

Despite being the incredible badass that he is, Zoro usually fights the second strongest opponent in a story arc, while Luffy takes on the main bad guy. However, that gets flipped on its head at Fishman Island, where Zoro is confronted by Hody Jones, a Fishman pirate staging a coup. Battling the pirate captain first with some aerial slashes and then underwater, Hody’s natural environment, the odds are stacked against Zoro. While the anime extends the battle a bit, ultimately it all comes down to one final clash, which sees Zoro defeat Hody in a single strike! Jones is lucky - if they were on dry land, Zoro would’ve turned him into sushi!

The Straw Hats return to Sabaody Archipelago after 2 years. When they were last there, they found themselves overmatched, barely able to defeat one of the Marines’ cyborg Pacifista soldiers. Luffy, hoping to remain under the radar in “disguise,” is eventually unmasked amid a gathering of pirates hoping to join people impersonating his crew. Now able to dodge PX-5’s laser blasts, Luffy then goes on to deliver a single Jet Pistol to the cyborg’s face - doing in one punch what it previously took his whole crew to accomplish! Two years well spent!

Speaking of Luffy’s growth, he and the crew once fought to collectively defeat a super-massive giant called Oars. During the battle against the Beasts Pirates on Onigashima, they’re faced with a similar group of huge giants, called Numbers. Luffy gets swung around for a bit by one, but then goes Gear Fourth. At the same time, X Drake is exposed as a mole among the Beasts Pirates, bursting out a window, and cuts through another of the Numbers just as Luffy punches his opponent in the tooth! It’s a short, inadvertent tag-team battle, but the dramatic finish and stellar animation make it quite memorable.

Luffy is about as subtle as a toddler, so when Kaido seemingly kills his friends, he refuses to lay low and wait for the right moment to strike back - he goes right after the Emperor! After knocking Kaido around in his huge dragon form, Luffy takes the Beasts Pirates captain on in his human, er, oni form. The strongest creature in the world is unhurt by Luffy’s punches, and proceeds to use a single attack to knock Luffy out - even though Luffy was in his strongest form at the time! It’s a great way to establish the villain’s immense power!

There are a lot of pirates on the Grand Line who think they’re the strongest. One such is Bellamy, who immediately disrespects Luffy when they meet, ridiculing his pursuit of dreams. Luffy doesn’t see the point of fighting Bellamy…at first. But after Bellamy beats up Luffy’s friends and steals their hard-earned gold, he confronts Bellamy to fight him for real. Bellamy puts on a good show, bouncing around Mock Town like a jet-propelled slinky. But all it takes to put the cocky pirate in his place, on the ground, is a single punch! Luffy doesn’t even use his rubber powers or name the attack! It’s such a hype moment to see other pirates realize the strength of the man who will become Pirate King!

If there’s a “One Piece” one-hit you wish we’d hit upon in our list, hit us up in the comments!