Gohan's Fight Against Frieza Proves How Much He Surpassed His Father

Before their more recent Dragon Ball Super upgrades, Gohan & Frieza had a fight that proved Gohan was stronger than Goku – teasing their DBS rematch!

Both Gohan and Frieza have each undergone some massive power ups in Dragon Ball canon, with Frieza obtaining his Black Frieza form and Gohan unlocking his Beast Gohan transformation, meaning it’s only a matter of time before the two of them face-off in Dragon Ball Super. However, long before these more recent developments, Gohan and Frieza did have a one-v-one battle, one that proved just how much Gohan surpassed not just Frieza, but also Goku by extension.

It’s fair to say that Goku proved himself as the nearly unbeatable warrior fans know him as today because of his battle with Frieza. It was during that fight (which began in Dragon Ball chapter 307 by Akira Toriyama) that Goku first became a Super Saiyan (which happened in Dragon Ball chapter 317).

By the end of their battle, Frieza was in his ‘final form’ and Goku was a Super Saiyan, and Goku was only barely able to pull off the victory. This means that Frieza’s final form is roughly as strong as a first-gen Super Saiyan, which is especially notable given the circumstances of Gohan’s fight with Frieza many years later.

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Goku needed to go Super Saiyan to beat Frieza!

In the anime film Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn, while Goku and Vegeta are busy fighting Janemba in hell, a horde of villains floods the Earth from the afterlife, and one of them is none other than Frieza. Upon his resurrection, the one thing that remained high on Frieza’s to-do list was to kill Goku. Goku may not have been the one to kill Frieza (that honor goes to Trunks), but he was the first Saiyan to defeat him, which meant Frieza wanted vengeance on Goku most of all.

When Frieza couldn’t find Goku, he decided that his son, Gohan (who he also briefly fought on Namek) would be a suitable substitute. However, Frieza vastly underestimated Gohan, as the half-Saiyan warrior sent Frieza back to hell with a single punch to the gut – no Super Saiyan power-up required.

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Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn isn’t officially canon, but something being canon or not merely speaks to the events that take place within Dragon Ball continuity, not power levels. Therefore, Gohan being as strong as Super Saiyan 1 Goku in his base form around the time of the ‘Majin Buu Saga’ holds true. This means Gohan surpassed the power level of his father to an extreme degree, as Goku struggled to beat Final Form Frieza as a Super Saiyan while Gohan one-shotted that same Frieza in his base form. Could this disparity translate to their current highest forms?

If Super Saiyan 1 Goku is equal to base-level Gohan, then what does Ultra Instinct Goku translate to in terms of Gohan’s true power level as Beast Gohan? That’s the question raised by Gohan’s sound victory over Frieza in Fusion Reborn, as it not only proves how much Gohan surpassed his father at that time, but it also indicates that Gohan may be the only Dragon Ball warrior strong enough to eventually take down Black Frieza.