Pokémon: 10 Strongest Trainers Ash Battled In Johto, Ranked

The Johto region is home to many powerful Pokémon trainers with great teams and Ash has fought quite a few of them in his travels.

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In the Pokémon anime, Ash is not only the main character but one of the strongest trainers in it. He’s routinely been able to take down Gym Leaders in every region he’s visited and placed quite well in most of the tournaments that take place throughout the anime. The Johto region was no exception.

While here, Ash once again came into contact with some of the strongest the region could offer to him, from collecting badges to fellow trainers at the Silver Conference. All of them presented their own challenges, and Ash wasn’t able to defeat all of them either.

10 Falkner Was Strong, But Too Predictable

Falkner is one of the most rigid Gym Leaders, ordering and tracking his Pokémon’s every move, even their flight patterns. This type of hands-on training initially gave him the edge against Ash, letting him predict the other’s move. However, he was far too predictable a trainer, leading Ash to figure out the path he was having his Pidgeot repeatedly take. His self-righteous attitude made him too blind to see this fact, making him one of the weaker Gym Leaders.

9 Pryce Forfeited Due To Exhaustion

Pryce was the Gym Leader of Mahogany Town and holder of the Glacier Badge. He used to be a renowned trainer who’d since become a grumpy leader who rarely accepted challenges from trainers due to his Piloswine abandoning him. That wasn’t the case, and Ash got his match after helping free the Pokémon from ice. In the ensuing battle, Pryce’s age seemed to come into play as the longer it went on, the more exhausted he became, leading to his forfeit.

8 Bugsy Knew How To Cover Up His Bug Pokemon’s Weakness To Fire

Normally, the bug trainer is by far the weakest among the Gym Leaders, never presenting much of a threat. Bugsy was different, knowing how to compensate for his Pokémon’s weaknesses, such as Scyther’s use of Sword’s Dance to deal with flames.

It worked well until he ran into Ash’s Cyndaquil who’s Flamethrower managed to overcome the defense, handing Ash victory. Even with it, it was easy to tell how skilled Bugsy was.

7 Morty Utilized Mean Look To Stop Others From Recalling Their Pokémon

Morty didn’t provide the stiffest challenge of the Gym Leaders but showed that he’s a very smart trainer in defeat. He always knew the strengths and weaknesses of his ghost-types, knowing they lacked physical strength and covered that up with confusion-based tactics. It makes it rather funny that those same abilities led to his defeat to Ash. Noctowl’s Confusion and Foresight ended up dominating Morty’s Pokémon, weakening them immensely.

6 Whitney Was The Ultimate One Trick Gym Leader

Unlike most, Whitney actually beat Ash when they first battled each other, dominating him with three straight wins thanks to Milltank’s near-unstoppable Rollout ability. The issue is that when you rely so heavily on one move, all it takes is coming up with a counter to defeat you, and that’s what Ash did. He used Totodile and Cyndaquil to slow Milltank down, allowing Pikachu to hit the final blow and defeat the rolling ball of terror.

5 Jasmine Managed To Exhaust Pikachu

Getting Pikachu to call it quits is difficult. No Pokémon having quite the same moxie he does. That’s what Jasmine managed in her duel with Ash. Her Magnemite wore him down, leaving him easy pickings for her Steelix.

That led to the showdown between Steelix and Cyndaquil, one that was back and forth. It took Cyndaquil turning Steelix’s Sandstorm into a Fire Whirl thanks to his Flamethrower ability. It shows how smart Ash is, but also how strong Jasmine was too.

4 Clair Took Ash To The Brink, Needing A New Combination to Achieve Victory

Clair was the final Johto League Badge that Ash needed, their battle taking two separate episodes to complete due to interference from Team Rocket. The Battle itself was back and forth, Clair seemingly on the verge of victory before Charizard used Flaming Seismic Toss on her Dragonair, seizing victory. A big reason why it was such a tough battle is due to the high number of dragon-types that Clair had in her arsenal, forcing Ash to strategize heavily.

3 Jackson Managed To Draw Ash In The Silver Conference Prelims

The final preliminary battle at the Silver Conference was between Jackson and Ash, two of them shown to be on an equal footing throughout the duel. Ash researched Jackson’s team the night before, plotting out a strategy that ensured he had the type advantage during the battle. Despite that, Jackson’s Magneton managed to eliminate two of Ash’s Pokémon. The battle came down to Jackson’s Meganium and Ash’s Bulbasaur, with the two fighting to a standstill, both of them collapsing from exhaustion.

2 Gary Oak Is A Worthy Long Term Rival To Ash

For the extent of the original series of Pokémon, Gary Oak is Ash’s eternal rival, the one who’s always a thorn in his side and continually one step ahead of him. This all culminates at the Silver conference when the two face off to determine who is the best. The battle is intense, coming down to the fully evolved starter Pokémon each have, Charizard and Blastoise respectively. It’s nip and tuck, but Charizard manages to come out on top, just barely.

1 Harrison Defeated Ash At The Silver Conference

As one of the few that can claim this, Harrison defeated Ash at the Silver Conference, a tournament to see who the best trainers in the Johto region were. Their battle was intense, lasting three episodes before a conclusion was rendered. The final battle came down to Charizard and Blaziken, both ending up on their last legs by the end, Charizard collapsing from exhaustion afterward. It’s one of the better fights from that whole region.

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