After being presumed dead by Luffy for over a decade, Sabo appears as the second in command under Dragon as Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army. Even as a child, he was on par with Ace when they sparred. Years later after picking him up, Dragon trained Sabo himself!

In Corrida Coliseum, Sabo faced off with Jesus Burges, who is Blackbeard’s bodyguard without breaking a sweat and crushed Bastille’s helmet with his bare hands using his Ryusoken style which uses his fingers as “claws”. On top of this, he can combine his Ryusoken with Busoshoku Haki which covers his hand, or the pipe he uses as a weapon with armor for added protection and power.

While that is impressive in itself, Sabo is now the proud user of the Mera Mera no Mi, or Flare-Flare Fruit that belonged to his deceased brother Ace; which he was quickly able to combine with the rest of his abilities. Can’t think of a better person to have it. :’)

Pica is one of the top three executives of the Donquixote Pirates and leads his own subdivision. Much like other characters on this list, Pica was strong even as a child, when he –along with the rest of the top tier of Doflamingo’s crew- burned down an entire town.

While Pica is naturally tough, his main strength lies in his Devil Fruit powers. He ate the Ishi Ishi no Mi which allows him to become one with and manipulate any stone or stone surface he touches. In Dressrosa, he was able to become as big as the island as it is entirely laid in stone. He can also swim through stone walls and such and hide his real body, thus making him tough to beat.

Pica has also been able to use Busoshoku Haki since age 9. He used it to cover his entire body with armor during his battle with Zoro to protect himself once he became unable to use his stone powers. Unfortunately for him, he’s only in 9th place for a reason.

Bounty: B 320,000,000

Roronoa Zoro was the first member to join the Straw Hats and one of the three strongest. He is a master swordsman with a dream to become the best in the world. During the time-skip, Zoro trained tirelessly with Dracule Mihawk who is one of the Shichibukai and currently considered the “Greatest Swordsman in the World”.

After training with Mihawk, Zoro’s strength grew exponentially. He was able to cut a Pacifista in half with ease and defeated Hody Jones, a fish-man, under water. Besides sword fighting, Zoro has always been exceptionally strong, lifting boulders and training with massive weights as well as being able to hold his own in hand to hand combat against Sanji, huge sea creatures, and other strong foes.

But the event that proves Zoro deserves a spot in this list is his ability to defeat the aforementioned Pica. While his Santoryu and other sword techniques weren’t enough on their own to defeat the stone giant, he was able to use Busoshoku Haki to armor his swords and Kenbunshoku Haki to sense where Pica’s real body was within the stone. On top of that, he cut Pica down even though he had covered himself in Haki as well. This was a long tough battle, but our Zoro came out on top!

Fujitora is an admiral in the Marines but disagrees with Akainu’s ideals of “Absolute Justice” and the way the world revolves around corruption and criminals making the rules. He even blinded himself to avoid witnessing it.

Issho’s Devil Fruit power allows him to control gravity. He can pin foes to the ground or even summon a meteor, as he did while fighting Doflamingo. (He only summoned it to prove a point mind you). He can also manipulate gravity around him to repel attacks. And, as he did in Dressrosa, he is able to pick up countless pieces of rubble and choose where and how they move in different areas. When fighting Sabo, Fujitora displays his Moko attack which pushes gravity outwards destroying anything within its radius.

Of course, as an admiral, he also uses Haki and uses it to imbue his sword to slow down Doflamingo’s cage. As he is blind, he regularly uses Kenbunshouku Haki which allows him to sense others around him. Fujitora has shown massive strength and power though he tries his best to stay peaceful. If we see him get serious, he may climb up in rank!

Sakazuki is the current Marine fleet admiral who defeated Kuzan, a fellow admiral, on Punk Hazard. After this 10-day battle, the climate of the island was permanently changed and Kuzan conceded his position as fleet admiral to Sakazuki. One of the reasons he makes it on this list is also the reason I (and probably many of you) hate his guts. He personally killed Ace in Marineford, and Ace was no pushover. But that’s not all; he also destroyed Moby Dick and gave Whitebeard a run for his money.

His physical strength and durability are immense when you consider he not only survived but was able to continue fighting during and after two Haki-enhanced quake attacks from Whitebeard that even split Marineford in half.

Akainu also possesses the power of the Magma-Magma fruit which allows his body to become magma, basically making him untouchable by most attacks. Of course, on top of that, being an admiral and all, he can use Busoshoku Haki which he used to protect the execution platform from Whitebeard’s attack. I really dislike this guy.

Bounty: B 340,000,000 (retracted)

Doflamingo has held almost every position possible. He was born a noble, he was the captain of the Donquixote Pirates, an underworld arms dealer and until recently, he was a Shichibukai and the king of Dressrosa after usurping King Riku III’s throne.

Besides his underworld connections, his position as Shichibukai and being an expert manipulator, this psychopath has pretty deadly powers. His physical strength alone is such that in Dressrosa he was able to slice through 3 palace towers with one kick. His Ito-Ito no Mi gives him the power to create and manipulate strings. He can puppeteer several people at once and at the same time control an ever-shrinking “Birdcage” made out of unbreakable, super-sharp strings as he did in Dressrosa.

He can also use his strings to cut through people, other weapons or structures. Oh and he can glide by attaching his strings to clouds, semi-repair his injuries by sewing his organs, and turn anything around him into string! Is that it? Am I missing anything!? Oh yeah, Haki. He can also use Haki. Geez…

He has already defeated several Vice-Admirals, including Smoker. And in Dressrosa he confronted Fujitora and Law, and Luffy even needed to take a break to recover in order to use his ultimate power (that we’ve seen so far) for a second time before finally defeating him. Once arrested, Doflamingo required several sea prism stone chains as opposed to the usual simple handcuffs.

Bounty: B 500,000,000

Of course after what he showed us in Dressrosa, we had to add our hero to this list. Luffy needs no introduction. He’s the captain of the Straw Hats, son of Dragon and well on his way to becoming King of the Pirates; which to him means having all the freedom in the world.

After spending two years training with Rayleigh on Rusukaina Island, he developed and perfected Gear Fourth as well as Haki. He has superhuman strength which he developed thanks to Garp’s training. Luffy can also take incredible amounts of punishment and can keep getting up to continue fighting. He can stop a strong opponent’s attack without using Haki or his Gum-gum powers, as well as dodge and react at amazing speeds.

He uses his Gomu-Gomu powers improvisationally and rarely plans any sort of attack, but he is quick to find his enemy’s weakness and use his powers to the maximum if needed. He can combine Busoshoku Haki with his Gear Second, giving him a super-strong fire fist. Gear Third makes his limbs gigantic and he can combine it with Haki as well.

As the hero, Luffy has –almost - always fought and defeated the “final boss” of every arc, so to speak. He has defeated Enel, Arlong, Crocodile and Gecko Moriah among other strong opponents. And in Dressrosa, after a long hard battle, he defeated Doflamingo using his Gear Fourth which coats his limbs in Haki while he inflates himself up to a muscular shape. This gear also adds extra strength and speed to Luffy's moves.
I could keep going but this isn't a Luffy article, we still have 3 more to go!

Whitebeard was one of the Yonko (Four Emperors) as well as the captain of the Whitebeard Pirates who he considered his “sons”. Even at his old age, he was believed to be the strongest man in the world until his defeat at Marineford.

Whitebeard was one of the few to be able to use all three forms of Haki. His Devil Fruit is the Gura-Gura no Mi and it allows him to create shockwaves in the air that he can use to cause earthquakes, tsunamis and destroy any land formation and anything on it. Like he did when he split Marineford in two. He also used his Bisento as a weapon which he could combine both with his Devil Fruit power and Haki to exponentially increase the damage done. He even stopped Akainu's attack with it!

Whitebeard was able to overpower giants and Marines with just one hand at Marineford. Also during Marineford he stood toe to toe with Akainu and continued fighting after having part of his head burned off. And during his fight against Blackbeard, with his devil fruit powers nullified, he was strong enough to pin him down. Even within his old-age and with his health issues, it took 267 sword wounds, 152 gunshots, 46 cannonball wounds plus Kizaru's laser beam, two magma blasts from Akainu and having his head half melted off to kill him. That was one tough old man!

Blackbeard is the Admiral of the Blackbeard Pirates and became one of the Four Emperors when he took Whitebeard's place after his death. He was previously one of the Shichibukai as well.

Teach has amazing endurance and physical strength. He was able to withstand Whitebeard's Quake Bubble attack and a slash from his Bisento with little to no damage at all. He was pierced twice by Ace's fire spears, took a direct hit from Luffy's Gear Second and Sengouku attacked him in his Daibutsu form and still, Teach was barely phased.

His original Devil Fruit is the Yami-Yami no Mi with which he can create a veritable black hole that sucks everything into nothingness with its gravitational pull, also crushing everything around it. Blackbeard can also absorb attacks or projectiles and launch them back. And once he touches another Devil Fruit user, he can disable their powers. As if this wasn't enough, after Whitebeard's death, he somehow was able to absorb his power, now being the only known person to wield the power of two Devil Fruits. He may even have more than two by now! So even though we haven't heard from him in a while, that's why he's in number 2.

Kaido is one of the Four Emperors and the captain of the Beast Pirates. Until his defeat in Dressrosa, Doflamingo was supplying Kaido with devil fruits from the SMILE Factory. He is so strong and fearsome, that even Doflamingo feared what would happen if Kaido didn’t get his shipment.

We didn’t know much about Kaido, other than he is feared and powerful. Gekko Moriah mentions at Thriller Bark that Kaido killed his entire crew in the New World and that is why he decided to have a crew made entirely of zombies.

Little by little, we’re learning more about Kaido and how powerful he really is. At the end of the Dressrosa Arc, it’s revealed that even though he has been defeated seven times, captured by enemies 18 times and sent to be executed 40 times, he is still alive. He has also sunk nine prison ships!

He jumped out of the sky to try and kill himself and still, did not succeed. He did, however, create a devastating shockwave and a crater after his impact on the ground only to stand up without a scratch and complaining about his inability to die. In fact, it seems he often attempts suicide and fails every time. Kaido is massive, strong and has the most durability of all the characters in One Piece and seems to be immortal so far. For now, Kaido of the Beasts is looking like the strongest character in the One Piece universe!