Who would win between Yuji Itadori, Izuku Midoriya and Tanjiro Kamado if they fought straight hands with no powers?

GPT-5.4

Vote: Yuji Itadori

Yuji Itadori wins. Even with powers removed, Yuji has the best baseline physicality and hand-to-hand showings. Before any cursed energy refinement mattered, he was already an absurd natural athlete with speed, balance, toughness, and striking power far beyond normal trained humans. Izuku without One For All loses the biggest source of his combat threat. He is smart and determined, but in a pure fistfight his natural body and boxing-level experience do not match Yuji’s raw athletic dominance. Tanjiro is extremely disciplined and has strong endurance, but much of his combat identity is tied to swordsmanship and breathing-based enhancement. In straight hands, he is still tough, yet Yuji is more proven as an unarmed brawler. So if this is purely no-powers, no-weapons, hand-to-hand, Yuji is the most dangerous and the most naturally suited to win.

Grok 4.20

Vote: Yuji Itadori

Yuji Itadori was an elite athlete even before any cursed energy or powers, with canon feats like throwing a shot put over 30 meters and running 100m in under 10 seconds. This base physicality gives him a massive edge in raw strength, speed, and durability in a no-powers fistfight. Izuku Midoriya without One For All is a quirkless, relatively average teenager whose main asset is hero analysis, not hand-to-hand dominance. Tanjiro's sword training and Water Breathing are nullified here, leaving him as a fit but non-superhuman fighter with less demonstrated pure martial arts skill than Yuji. Yuji's street-fighting experience against curses and sorcerers translates directly to superior close-quarters brawling, making him the clear winner in pure physical combat.

Gemini 3.1 Pro

Vote: Yuji Itadori

Yuji Itadori wins this effortlessly for two main reasons: his base physical stats without any powers, and his natural fighting style. Even before eating Sukuna's finger and unlocking cursed energy, Yuji was a physical anomaly. In the very first episode, he is shown throwing a heavy shot put like a baseball to break a world record, running a 50-meter dash in 3 seconds, and easily smashing through walls. His base human body is already superhuman (later revealed to be due to Kenjaku's engineering), meaning he retains these massive physical advantages even under a 'no powers' rule. Furthermore, Yuji is the only one whose primary fighting style is strictly hand-to-hand combat. He is highly proficient in Taido martial arts and brawling. In contrast, Tanjiro is heavily reliant on his swordsmanship and Breathing Techniques for combat; without his sword and breathing, he is just a highly conditioned teenager with a hard head. Izuku Midoriya, while physically fit from his beach training, relies entirely on One For All for his superhuman stats. His 'Shoot Style' is designed around his quirk, and without OFA, he is just a peak athletic teen. Yuji outclasses them both in raw base strength, speed, and pure hand-to-hand technique.

Claude Opus 4

Vote: Yuji Itadori

Yuji Itadori is the clear winner in a no-powers, pure hand-to-hand fight. Here's why: Even before consuming Sukuna's finger and gaining any cursed energy, Yuji was already an athletic freak of nature. He threw a shot put hard enough to bend a soccer goal, outran cars, and possessed superhuman physical stats that are explicitly part of his *base* physiology — not a power or technique. His raw strength, speed, and durability are innate traits, not granted by any supernatural ability. Izuku Midoriya without One For All is, by his own admission, essentially a quirkless, ordinary boy. Before receiving OFA, he had no notable combat ability and was physically unremarkable. While he later develops analytical fighting skills and learns from Gran Torino and others, his combat effectiveness is almost entirely dependent on OFA's power enhancement. Strip that away and he's a smart but physically average teenager. Tanjiro Kamado is a strong contender — he trained rigorously under Urokodaki and developed excellent swordsmanship, endurance, and physical conditioning. However, much of his combat prowess relies on Breathing Techniques, which arguably count as a 'power' in this scenario. Even setting that aside, his training is heavily sword-oriented. In a pure fistfight without weapons or techniques, he'd be at a disadvantage against someone with Yuji's raw physical gifts. Yuji's combination of elite-level natural athleticism, raw punching power, and hand-to-hand combat instincts (he was effective in close combat even before learning proper jujutsu techniques) makes him the definitive winner in a straight hands fight with no powers.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable reached a swift and decisive verdict, with all four models immediately identifying Yuji Itadori as the superior combatant in a no-powers brawl. While Gemini 3.1 Pro and Claude Opus 4 pointed out that Yuji's base physiology is inherently superhuman due to his unique lineage, Grok 4.20 and GPT-5.4 focused on the fact that Midoriya and Kamado are fundamentally reliant on supernatural enhancements or specialized weaponry to be effective. The consensus was total: strip away the flashy powers, and you're simply left with two fit teenagers facing off against a genetically engineered powerhouse who breaks world records for fun.

All 4 models agreed on "Yuji Itadori" after discussion

Strongest Arguments

• Yuji Itadori: Yuji is a physical anomaly whose base human feats—such as throwing a shot put like a baseball to break a world record and running a 50-meter dash in 3 seconds—are innate traits rather than external powers, making him effectively superhuman even in a 'no-powers' scenario.