Round of 16 One Piece Tournament 2015 - Luffy vs Sabo

[ProGoddess]

Voting Rules:

• Bo16 onwards battles are 1 vs 1.
• During Bo16, you'll be able to vote up to 24 hours after discussion ends.
• You may vote for one character in this fight.
• So you voted early and someone/something changed your mind? You can use the "unvote" function at the top right of the vote box and try again.

Monkey D. Luffy​	Sabo​

Discussion will end on: October 17
Voting will end on: October 18​

 

[Faust]

Oh man. Fight of brothers.

Devil fruit; I think Sabo has the edge with the mera mera no mi.
Haki; Luffy has the Conqueror's Haki and he was trained by the Pirate King's first mate, Rayleigh. I think Luffy is better or/at least have a slight edge against the Revolutionary Army's 2nd in Command.
Weapon; Sabo have his pipe. Luffy have no official weapon but there's a possibility that he will probably use found object/s just like he did in the Marineford War.
Combat skills; Luffy have always been 3rd among the three brothers when they were young. Sabo is still probably better than him. And he was probably trained by Dragon.

Winner: Sabo

Damn why do they have to win meet this early in the tournament.

 

[Holt]

Actually, in terms of DF mastery, Luffy far outclasses Sabo. Sabo is basically a novice with the mera mera. He can't even properly control it yet. Luffy on the other hand has been with his DF for ages and constantly improves his fighting and mastery. They're not even close when it comes to DF. Even if one were to argue that the mera mera is naturally more powerful than gomu gomu, the experience Luffy has over Sabo more than negates that. Also, Luffy is proficient enough with Haki to not have a problem fighting a logia. Not that this says Luffy would win though.

Anyway, imo, Luffy slightly edges this one out. Now most probably wouldn't agree with this but here's my reasoning. First, we know next to nothing about how Sabo truly fares in battle. He faced Burgess but who knows how strong Burgess really is? For all we know, Luffy can best Burgess using only gear 2/3. I think a lot of people (myself included) initially though Sabo superior based on hype. For me, 2 things changed since his intro and by the end of dressrosa. First, his skirmish and managing to hold off an admiral on his own is negated by Luffy basically doing the same (and actually having Issho on the defensive) despite not being in perfect condition. Sure Issho was very likely not serious in either fight but Sabo's skirmish with Issho loses meaning because Luffy basically replicated it in base form. Second, there was Gear 4. It's a massive game changer to put it mildly. DD is a veteran pirate. He was sailing the seas before Luffy/Sabo set foot in the waters. DD has fought in wars and awakened his DF indicating complete mastery and get Gear 4 was simply something he couldn't compete with. First, DD was forced to use DF awakening (which still didn't suffice) and second he has very durable himself. Also Luffy's Haki ran out when he was literally a punch away from defeating DD and we know he had been expending Haki all the way up until he fought DD. Yes DD may have been injured by law but he was outclassed by gear 4.
Now for Sabo vs Luffy, first, Luffy would be in perfect condition thus less Haki wasted and more time in gear 4. Second, Sabo is a novice with mera mera. He can barely control it after all. Combat wise, Sabo may be better but in Gear 4, he'd neither have the speed not strength to match it. Furthermore, it'd be a stretch to say he's as durable as DD. As for Haki, well it's up in the air but DD's attacks simply bounced off Gear 4 Luffy so I don't think Sabo fares better there. Also DD put 3 stars on Sabo same as Luffy and Law. It may not necessarily indicate strength but at least it shows that DD feels they're about the same and that was before he knew of Gear 4.

Tl;dr, we don't have enough to say for certain that Sabo is stronger. It was based on hype which Luffy had negated by the end of dressrosa (mostly the solo admiral thing). DF wise, Luffy is way out of Sabo's league and last, there's nothing to indicate that Sabo has either speed or strength or durability to withstand the onslaught of Gear 4. Feats over Hype for me and Luffy beats Sabo in that regard.

 

[Sachsenhesse]

Same as holt. By the feats shown Luffy will take it. Too bad for Sabo.

 

[DeadlyBeast]

Wow these one on ones are getting pretty hard to decide. This one is one of those that is made difficult by a lack of information on one of the fighters. We really don't know much about how strong Sabo is from actual feats while we do know for Luffy, which will definitely bias people one way or the other.

Luffy has had years of experience with his DF, has strong haki, has Conquerors haki though I doubt that has any relevance to this fight with what we've been shown of its actual capability. Holt made a good argument as to why Luffy should be better with his DF but I'm not sure that actually stands with skilled people since we've seen with people like Kaku that someone who is a strong fighter can quickly adapt to using their DF powers. At the point they are in the story now, and the fact we see Sabo training I don't think it will be that big of a discrepancy in DF abilities between Luffy and Sabo. The fact Luffy is trained by Rayleigh for 1 and a half years is not close to Sabo being under Dragon for more than a decade and being out at sea for a much longer period of time as well, so Sabo has more experience. Luffy's G4 is incredible and really powerful and we haven't yet seen Sabo exhibit anything like that but since he hasn't gone all out yet we can't blame him. I feel that Sabo actually right now has better busokoka than Luffy since he actually was shown breaking swords etc not only with his pipe but also his bare hands. Before he got the mera mera it is heavily implied that Sabo was an incredible hand to hand combatant and those are the types that heavily specialize in armament. For plot reasons it is also likely that Sabo is currently stronger than Luffy, though Luffy will eventually surpass him and Ace.

Honestly for me this fight is up in the air with both having a good shot at victory. I'm probably going to mull it over and if I can come up with any rational reason that gives one a good edge over the other I'll share it. If not I'm just going to flip a coin or go with Luffy with future match ups in mind, which will be easier to analyze with characters that we have a lot of information for cuz I fear if Sabo moves on and is again faced with an opponent of his caliber, we'll be left with this same situation of not knowing enough.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

I'd say it's too hard at this stage of the tournament, to have to choose between two of the strongest contenders. If I were to choose based on their performance in this arc, these two could come at a tie, with Sabo giving the impression he could be stronger than Luffy atm.But I'll go in deeper to explain my choice.
Luffy has shown that he has mastered all of his previous techniques, and was able to come up with a new technique that manages to mix Gear2+3. Gear 4 is nothing short of being impressive, seeing how it allowed Luffy to beat DD rather easily. Once it was activated DD had almost no chance, and he was overwhelmed by Luffy's speed and strength. Even the awakening didn't do much. The only reason DD didn't go down immediately is because he's resistant, like a cockroach...However the main grip I have with Gear 4 is the time limit, and the fact that Luffy is pretty much defensless(hakiless) after he uses it. He definitely needs to improve on that.
As for Sabo, before he ate the Mera Mera he was already impressive. His Dragon claw was able to completely destroy the arena. Now that he has the Mera Mera he can only logically become even more powerful. And I think the main advantage he has is that he doesn't need to rely on his DF alone to make a difference, the Dragon claw is a pretty powerful technique to begin with.However he still needs to master his DF.
Also let's not forget that both faced Fujitora, and both came out of it somewhat unscathed. Since these were just skirmishes, then I doubt it will tell us much about how strong those two are.

So who will I choose? If I were to use logic only I'd say Sabo is slightly stronger than Luffy, but my heart tells me to choose Luffy, but also because I have a hunch that he could still have some trick up his sleeve(coughGear5cough).Also Gear 4 is such a powerful technique I doubt it will be ineffective against Sabo. And because Luffy is relentless he will keep on coming back no matter what.So in the end I think I'll go with Luffy, all the way.
If I had a choice I would put this fight as the final one, to me Luffy vs DD isn't that all interesting. So having Luffy fight other characters who could be close in terms of power, or even stronger that he hasn't fought in the manga is definitely more interesting imo.

 

[elzniv]

DF: luffy is ahead but just a little bit, even though sabo is new to his fruit, he is a veteran fighter and it is a fire element, rubber is generally weak against fire.

Haki: i say its fairly even. luffy might have the advantage of conqueror's but i think sabo is more experienced with the other two as he probably had an earlier start with them.

Fighting Style: i'll go with sabo here since luffy might have gears but sabo is a dragon tech user, and now he breathes fire. also sabo, as i see it,is the more composed fighter.

All in all i think sabo will win at this time, but luffy would surpass him as he encounters more powerful enemies.

 

[MBVC]

Sabo

 

[ProGoddess]

This is definitely a very tough battle. On one hand we have Luffy who has shown good mastery of his ability and won many battles. He even won over Doflamingo who was the toughest opponent whom he had seriously fought with so far. This particular fight lasted for so long and Luffy had to come up with an upgrade (gear 4th) in order to finally defeat his enemy.

In this Dressrosa arc, it is also the re-introduction of Sabo, Luffy's long lost brother. Sabo appears to be mastering well with his ability (dragon claw) even without the Mera Mera df. Perhaps he may be a better fighter as compared to Luffy, but he has not been shown much about him since he has only re-appeared after such a long period time. The last we saw him was when he was a child and his boat was being attacked. We had thought that he was dead then. But with his recent appearance, it may be a bit bias to say that he is not as good or better than Luffy. However we can only base on whatever information is available to gauge and estimate his capability, and to make comparison with Luffy.

In this case, I would go for Luffy. Not because that Sabo is less capable than Luffy or Luffy better than Sabo. In my opinion, they seem to be very capable on their own ways. However this tournament requires only one winner. Therefore I have chosen Luffy in view of his past battle experience and performance. At the same time, he is also someone who is pretty quick in coming out with ideas. I would say he is creative in that sense as he is able to generate ideas in the quickest possible time to tackle situations at hand. On top of that, he is also daring enough to try new things despite the risk or potential risk. In fact I feel that he doesn't even think about consequence and acts based on instinct. Despite that, he could still win over his enemies. I guess he is also able to twist and turn (so to speak), and fine tune his ability as and when it is needed. This is probably one of the main reasons that he always win, putting aside the fact that he is the main character in the story.

When I look at Sabo, he appears to me to be someone who can go on a one-to-one fight and fights well. He does not give the vibe of a person who is quick-tempered or acts rashly, unlike his little brother. He seems to be calm most of the time and able to act according to situation, and know when to fight or flight (attack or withdraw). I believe he must be a very good right-hand man for Dragon. Perhaps he is like his boss, the cool and calm type since he has been with Dragon throughout his childhood till present time.

Though I have made my choice, but I feel that the two boys may come to a draw if they truly compete with each other. I doubt we would ever see them fight, say in a tournament, in the manga.

What is your choice and how do you derive from it to conclude your choice?

 

[Akainu]

The polls are closed, the pipes are smoked. The long lost brother triumphed over our dear rubber-clad protagonist. Sabo wins.