10 Best One Piece Akainu Fights, Ranked (2024)

Sakazuki, primarily known as Akainu, is the current Fleet Admiral of the Marine force in Eichiro Oda's One Piece. As Fleet Admiral, he is one of the many antagonistic forces against the Straw Hat crew and the revolutionaries who act on the side of good. While he was first one of the three admirals, skip Akainu became the man in charge and ruled over the Marines with an iron fist. This control is held firmly thanks to his Devil Fruit.

Akainu possesses one of the strongest Devil Fruits in the series, the Magu Magu no Mi, a Logia-type Devil Fruit that lets Akainu create, control, and transform his body into magma. Combining this with his physical strength and usage of powerful Haki, Akainu remains one of the biggest threats that Luffy will face. While Akainu is one of the series' greatest antagonists, his list of fights is nowhere near that of other characters in the story. Even with this, though, Akainu's fights have always been a spectacle, with these ten the Fleet Admiral's best.

10 Akainu, Borsalino, and Kuzan vs. Monkey D. Luffy

Featured in Episode 473: The Encircling Walls Activated! The Whitebeard Pirates Backed into a Corner!

This fight created one of Luffy's most remarkable moments as he faced off against the three admirals: Akainu, Aokiji, and Kizaru. This is less of a fight and more of an exciting narrative choice from Oda to show the difference between the protagonist and the Admirals. Luffy attempts to get past them with strength, but none of his attacks hit due to his lack of Haki.

The most interesting part of this battle is that while Luffy's attacks don't do much of anything, only Aokiji and Kizaru act. Akainu only stands and asserts that he's far too strong to even consider Luffy or his attacks any type of threat. As the Admiral's first major appearance, having him stand with no fear against the protagonist shows that he isn't someone that Luffy can mess with.

9 Akainu vs. Marco & Vista

Featured in Episode 483: Looking for the Answer - Fire Fist Ace Dies on the Battlefield

During Akainu's chase to finish off Fire Fist Ace, which is going to be the backdrop for a lot of these fights, Whitebeard's second in command, Marco, and Vista, a swordsman who was able to clash against Mihawk, whose power as the strongest swordsman makes him a dangerous foe to fight, rushed to charge at Akainu. Using Armament Haki, they attacked Akainu, hoping to put him down. But Akainu not only survived but shrugged off their attacks.

This feat showed Akainu's outstanding durability. Neither Marco nor Vista was holding back when they struck Akainu, and using Haki meant that even though Akainu's fruit was a Logia, he should have been damaged. But Akainu ignored both pirates and continued his pursuit of his target.

8 Akainu vs. Marco

Featured in Episode 484: The Navy Headquarters Falls! Whitebeard's Unspeakable Wrath!

Fire is a standard power in One Piece. Ace uses it, Marco uses it, and Akainu uses it. When the two powers clash, it looks similar to when beams clash in Dragon Ball Z. Marco moves to save Luffy and Jinbe from a flaming fist with a wall of blue fire. The intense clash is the first movement of the Whitebeard pirate's goal to keep Luffy alive for Ace's sake. Without Marco's intervention, Luffy would have perished.

But Akainu shows that he's so much stronger than Marco. Akainu blows away Marco and overpowers his fire with his own. He even blows away the Whitebeard Pirates, whom Marco has just moved to fight for Ace's sake. Thus beginning Akainu's chase for Luffy's head.

7 Akainu vs. Whitebeard

Featured in Episode 484: The Navy Headquarters Falls! Whitebeard's Unspeakable Wrath!

Akainu and Whitebeard clash after Ace's demise at Akainu's hands. In this fight, Whitebeard proves why he is the strongest and that he desperately cares for Ace. It also gave such a feat of strength to Whitebeard, who splits apart the whole island while striking Akainu with a punch. Akainu also gets a few good hits, even punching through Whitebeard just as he did Ace and clashing with Whitebeard's power numerous times.

Before Ace's death, Akainu and Whitebeard clashed at Marineford. Here, Akainu used his own special move called Hound Blaze, a sizeable flaming dog that attacked Whitebeard, showing how skilled he is with his Devil Fruit. This fight also exposed Akainu's ruthlessness, as when Whitebeard crumbles to his knees from old age, Akainu doesn't hesitate to strike Whitebeard to kill him.

6 Akainu vs. Jinbe

Featured in Episode 483: Looking for the Answer - Fire Fist Ace Dies on the Battlefield

Dealing with the mortal blow to Ace completely broke Luffy, rendering the unmoveable protagonist immobile. If Jinbe had not intervened, Akainu would have done the same damage to Luffy, ending the future King of the Pirates. This clash of Jinbe's water versus Akainu's magma eventually begins with a chase between Jimbe carrying Luffy and Akainu chasing them. Jinbe's Fish-Man Karate, one of the many things that make Jinbe a powerful character, proved ineffective against Akainu's strength.

The best moment from this fight is the reason Luffy got his scar. During the battle's climax, Akainu strikes through Jinbe and attacks Luffy's chest. Jinbe isn't a frail pirate; he's durable, so having Akainu punch through them and hit and scar Luffy shows another way that Akainu's strength far eclipses so many others.

5 Akainu vs. Emporio Ivankov and Inazuma

Featured in Episode 486: The Opening of the Show - Blackbeard's Plot Is Revealed

Emporio Ivankov and Akainu have history, all thanks to Monkey D. Dragon, the leader of the revolutionaries. Just like pirates, Akainu has negative feelings towards the revolutionary army. But his priority is killing Luffy, who incited the incident at Marineford even further. Ivankob and Inazuma get in his way as he chases Jinbe. This quick fight shows how the two fighters are experts from their decades of combat. While Akainu shoots Inazuma, he is quickly put on the defensive against Ivankov.

This fight acts as an incredible tease for what's to come in the future when the revolutionary army and the Marines clash for the future of the world. With Ivankov acting as Dragon's right hand, Ivankov and Akainu will likely face off again. This fight uses Ivankov's unique martial arts and Akainu's pure strength and magma abilities.

4 Akainu Decimates the Whitebeard Pirates & Curiel

Featured in Episode 461: The Beginning of the War! Ace and Whitebeard's Past!

At the start of the Marineford arc, Akainu battles multiple Whitebeard pirates simultaneously, including one of the commanders, Curiel. One of the earlier fights shows the grand scale of the Marineford war, which is the arc that changed One Piece forever. While also featuring another incredible display of Akainu's powers, as he quickly dispatches the Whitebeard Pirates, giving audiences a chance to see Akainu's hatred for pirates to such an extreme degree.

The reasoning for Akainu's hatred of pirates has yet to be fully explored in the series, but when it does come to fruition, it could change how fans see Akainu's actions in this fight. The brutality and need to end all the Pirates attacking Marineford could come from a dark place in Akainu's history, and it'll be interesting to see fans come back to scenes like this when Oda decides to reveal more.

3 Akainu and Sabo Face off in a One Piece Game

Featured in One Piece World Seeker

Sabo is the other brother of Luffy and Ace. As a trio, they were unstoppable and shared their dreams and strengths with each other. However, Sabo receives amnesia after an incident with his noble royal family and ends up being trained and raised under the revolutionary army. All this to say that when Sabo sees on the news that Ace was executed by Akainu, it's so devastating that it recovers his memories and all the tragedy that came with it.

Fans are excited to see when Sabo will get revenge for Ace by fighting Akainu, especially as he would be using the same fruit Ace had before he died. While that fight seems far away in the current arcs of One Piece, one of its more well-received games, One Piece World Seeker delivered on that premise. In the clash, Akainu mentions haven seen Sabo's flames before, as the revolutionary takes on the Fleet Admiral to buy Luffy time to escape. Like in Marineford, where Ace protected Luffy, Sabo does the same.

2 Akainu Versus Aokiji for the Title of First Admiral

Told in Episode 570: The Straw Hats Stunned! The New Fleet Admiral of the Navy!

One of Akainu's greatest fights happens off-screen. The only thing fans are aware of is its long-lasting effects. Battling Kuzan for the title of Fleet Admiral and a test of each other's individual justice. The fight lasts 10 days and ends with Akainu the victor and Kuzan leaving the military, unwilling to work under Akainu for personal reasons. Their duel was so mighty that it altered the weather patterns of Punk Hazard for years to come and led to two significant changes for both marines.

This fight resulted in Aokiji losing a leg thanks to Akainu and starting the man's trajectory to working with the Blackbeard Pirates and eventually the capturing of Garp that Blackbeard plans to use for his nefarious deeds. Now that Akainu is Fleet Admiral, the Marines have been relocated into the New World to prepare for the New Pirate Age, which started with Whitebeard's death.

1 Akainu Fights and Kills Portgas D. Ace

Featured in Episode 483: Looking for the Answer - Fire Fist Ace Dies on the Battlefield

Possibly the worst thing Akainu has ever done that makes him so detestable to fans everywhere is brutally killing Ace. Akainu uses one of Ace's fatal flaws and insults Whitebeard to Fire Fist Ace's back. Knowing his father's honor is on the line, Ace battles Akainu in honor of his Captain. Akainu and Ace clash, magma versus fire, and Akainu proves that his magma burns hotter than Ace's flames. He beats Ace away, showing the pirate what real fire is like. Ace was out of his league here, with no known feats of Haki to fight back against Akainu.

This fight ends with one of the series most tragic moments as Akainu goes to attack Luffy and kill Straw Hat, but Ace manages to find enough strength to get in the way of the attack and takes the full force for his little brother. This kills Ace, breaks Luffy, and makes the entire struggle and pain of the Marineford War useless as the Marines come out on top against Whitebeard. This fight emphasized Akainu's place as one of the series' final and greater villains.

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One Piece

TV-14

Action

Adventure

Comedy

Drama

Fantasy

Super Power

Follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew in order to find the greatest treasure ever left by the legendary Pirate, Gold Roger. The famous mystery treasure named "One Piece".

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Creator(s)

Eiichiro Oda

Cast

Mayumi Tanaka , Kazuya Nakai , Akemi Okamura , Kappei Yamaguchi , Hiroaki Hirata , Ikue Ôtani , Yuriko Yamaguchi , Kazuki Yao , Chō

Main Genre

Action

Seasons

20

Creator

Production Company

Writers

Junki Takegami , Shoji Yonemura , Hirohiko Uesaka

Number of Episodes

Streaming Service(s)

Crunchyroll

Franchise(s)

One Piece

Directors

Kônosuke Uda , Junji Shimizu , Munehisa Sakai