Since he was a child, Dragon Ball's Son Goku has had one wish, to be the best fighter in the universe, but despite that, there are a handful of anime heroes who could destroy the Saiyan warrior. He's been fortunate in the fact that he's largely been able to fulfill his childhood dream. Having trained with and fought against the most impressive of Gods, warriors, and fighters, no one can deny he's in the conversation on who is the greatest anime fighter of all time. But all his accolades don't mean he can't be beaten.
As a lifelong warrior, with the thirst for fighting literally embedded in his DNA, finding a hero to defeat Goku is no easy task. However, with the breadth and diversity of characters found in anime, there are more than a few capable souls whose abilities can ultimately overcome whatever skills in battle Goku may possess. Goku might be incredibly powerful, but he's absolutely not invincible.
10 2B
NieR: Automata’s YoRHA No, 2 Type B (2B) advanced battle android has all the abilities to make quick work of Goku. She is extremely agile and fast, with abilities that do not degrade during a brawl. This would make it difficult for Goku to hit her physically or with one of his energy blasts. In actual close-quarter flighting, she is the better of the two, especially if she only had to concentrate on Goku. Additionally, her sword and spear increase her hit distance such that she can strike Goku outside his individual striking range. Moreover, she is an extremely quick study, allowing her to learn Goku’s movements to develop an effective counter-attack or applicable defense quickly.
9 Maruo Kaido
One of Ayashimon’s Maruo Kaido's childhood heroes was Goku. So the first advantage he would have coming into a fight is having a deep understanding of Goku’s basic movements and when he is most likely to power up. In addition, just like Goku, Maruo is a martial arts fiend, having studied and mastered a number of fighting styles that he has integrated into his own individual style. Additionally, like Goku, Maruo is extremely resilient. He can take enormous amounts of damage and then quickly heal and regenerate so that he’s almost as good as new. Fighting-wise, he’s almost an exact copy of Goku, just younger. However, as a result of his youth, Maruo has more to prove, and that would be the crucial difference in administering a Saiyan smackdown.
8 Hei - The Black Reaper
The ability for Darker Than Black’s Hei to crush Goku has two elements. First, there’s his martial arts skills. Like Goku, Hei is an accomplished martial artist whose prowess in hand-to-hand fighting would surely meet with Goku’s approval if circumstances were different. His martial arts skills would be able to hold any initial attack Goku would present. It also gives him time to deliver the second element of Hei’s abilities, namely his ability to manipulate electricity. With this power Hei can deliver electric shocks and charges with enough capacity to fry Goku alive. In addition, Hei's use of electricity allows him to change matter at the quantum level thereby giving him the ability to destroy matter - including Goku - with ease.
7 Shigeo Kageyama
What Mob Psycho 100’s Shigeo Kageyama lacks in physical attributes and abilities he more than makes up for through his psychic powers, and it is through those powers that Shigeo, if provoked, would make quick work of Goku. In terms of defense, Shigeo can use his psychic powers to create impenetrable barriers around him. While he will not be able to keep these barriers “up” indefinitely, he should be able to maintain them long enough to subdue Goku. Even more frightening for Goku is that when Shigeo loses his ability to control his emotions, no one knows what level his psychic powers will reach.
6 Tatsumaki
Despite her diminutive stature, One Punch Man’s Tatsumaki is physically one of the strongest members of the Hero Association. Considering its other members, that fact in and of itself suggests that she should be more than able to handle herself against Goku. However, she wouldn’t even need to lay hands on the Saiyan for her to summarily dispatch him. Tatsumaki is a God-level psychic. Besides more common psychic abilities such as controlling objects with her mind, TatsuMaki can also use her abilities to fly, create psychic barriers of protection, and manipulate gravity to literally compress people and things into nothing. Most dangerously for Goku, Tatsumaki can even attack his life force, thereby smashing his will to fight before a punch is thrown.
5 Boruto Uzumaki
Boruto Uzumaki has a history of overcoming incredible odds to defeat opponents no one ever thought he’d be capable of subduing. While Goku’s skill and experience make him a better melee fighter against Buruto currently, the son of the Seventh Hokage has plenty of abilities that will make up for his lack of pugilistic prowess. For instance, he mastered the Shadow Clone technique to launch multiple hard-hitting attacks on Goku. Boruto can also tap into his Jougan, a dojutsu ability that allows him to track Goku’s movements in real time. Finally, he has Rasengan, a spinning ball of chakra energy with immense damaging and destructive power. Perhaps most importantly, his connection to Momoshiki Otsutsuki gives him a range of other abilities, not the least of which is advice from a battle-experienced star-traveling, dimension-hopping alien.
4 Saitama
Considering One-Punch Man’s impressive history of effortlessly defeating a plethora of different types of opponents, and his means of melee success, a singular punch to the head or body, he is one individual on the list that Goku would likely come up against in a fight to see who is best. Unfortunately for Goku, since he rarely arrives at a fight already in a “powered up” form Saitama should be able to knock Goku out fairly quickly and thus avoid a transformation that might prove more difficult to beat. Ending fights quickly seems to be a common One-Punch Man strategy, which would work well in this case.
3 Daemon
Fans should not mistake the youth and immaturity of Boruto’s Daemon as weaknesses. Engineered to take down the best of the best shinobi, Daemon is nearly invincible in any fight. His invulnerability stems from the fact that he can boomerang any attack that is initiated against him back to the opponent. Moreover, Daemon’s reflected counter-attack will be as punishing as the opponent’s original intent. Accordingly, any strike Goku thinks about making on Daemon will result in Daemon striking him first with the same strike and the same level of lethality. Moreover, even with a reflected counter-strike, Daemon has shown himself to be so adept in martial arts to defeat men twice his size.
2 Mash Burnedead
While this is sure to be one of the most intense fights either combatant experiences, Mashle: Magic and Muscles’ Mash Burnedead has proven himself time and again to be the best pugilist in anime. His physical skills are so OP that they can even overcome magic – which is an ability not even Goku can conjure up consistently. The secret to Mash’s prowess should not come as strange to Goku. He trains, eats right, and despite his naïveté, is a master tactician. Add to this the fact that his strength is practically otherworldly and that he's super-resilient, often coming back stronger than ever when he’s knocked down. He is the one hero who can go blow-for-blow against Goku and still be the last man standing.
1 Satoru Gojo
Jujutsu Kaisen's Satoru Gojo would dominate Goku in battle would come down to three of his basic techniques: Domain Expansion, Hollow Technique: Purple, and Limitless With Domain Expansion, Gojo will be able to lock Goku in a set space that he would not be able to escape from and where any technique that Gojo uses would never fail to hit Goku with maximum effectiveness. Purple is a high-energy blast that obliterates anything in its path. Conversely, with Limitless, Gojo would be able to prevent Goku from being able to land a punch, kick, or strike on him. If additional evidence is necessary, there is also the fact that Gojo is also an expert-level hand-to-hand fighter with decades of experience fighting some of history's most heinous abominations.
Despite his obvious and undeniable fighting abilities, there are ways to beat, and even crush Goku. He can be physically taken out if the attack is quick and decisive before he can power up. He can also be defeated by psychological attacks when done with overwhelming force. Lastly, he can be defeated by the manipulation of science and magic. The ten anime heroes above all hold one or more of these abilities, and as such have the ability to absolutely crush Dragon Ball's Goku.