- Greetings, Pokefans! Michael here, and welcome to the
newest installment of my Pokemon Types: Then vs. Now series where I go over the history and changes that a certain Pokemon
type has gone through over the course of the
main series Pokemon games. This episode is focusing
on the Fighting type, a type that has changed quite
a bit more than I realized before starting my research. So, don't forget to subscribe
to my channel, pretty please. Thank you. And let's dive in starting with Gen 1 where the Fighting type was not good. This was the Fighting's
type chart in Gen 1. On the offensive side,
it had the nice benefit of being the only type super
effective against Normal which is still the case today. Unfortunately, that wasn't super helpful for the Fighting type because in Gen 1, all of the normal types
were either really weak, also Flying type, or just
so rarely encountered that you didn't get to take advantage of that advantage (laughs) very often. Fighting was also super effective against Rock and Ice,
which was somewhat helpful but not instrumental
since Rock was also weak to the very common Water and Grass while Ice was very rare and usually attached to a Water type. Then it was resisted by four
types, which is quite a lot, and made worse by Poison
and Flying's prevalence. And then of course it
couldn't touch Ghost types aside from using Seismic Toss or Counter. Nowadays Seismic Toss and Counter
do not affect Ghost types, but they did in Gen 1. Defensively, things were
not that great either. It resisted Rock, which was
nice and then it resisted Bug. Unfortunately, the Bug type
resistance was completely useless, see "Bug Types Then vs. Now." However, it did lead to the fun fact that Bug and Fighting are
the only two different types that resist each other. It was also weak to Flying
,which was somewhat abundant, and weak to Psychic. In other videos, I've talked my butt off about how the Psychic type
was so incredibly overpowered in Generation 1, so I'm not gonna go into
details about that here. But the fact that the
Fighting type was weak to the strongest type in the game that was a staple of every team, well, that's not good. The fully evolved Fighting
type Pokemon were Primeape, Poliwrath, Machamp,
Hitmonlee, and Hitmonchan, with all but Poliwrath having
very good physical attack. Machamp was the strongest of them all, having the highest base stat total and tied with a few other Pokemon for the second highest
attack stat in the game. But Poliwrath wasn't far
behind in regards to total, having a more balanced spread. Their useful stats weren't
really enough though since their access to good
Fighting type moves was very limited, which is weird because
there were a lot of them. These are all the Fighting
type moves introduced in Gen 1, but several of them aren't
as useful as they might seem. Karate Chop was a Normal
type move in Gen 1, which might be the dumbest
thing in all of Gen 1. Don't get me wrong. There's a ton of problems with Gen 1, but the fact that they made
Karate Chop a Normal type move when there is a Fighting dojo led by the Karate Master is absurd. It's like making Water
Gun a Fire type move. Anyways ignore Karate Chop on the list. It wasn't actually a Fighting type option. Then High Jump Kick, Jump Kick, and Rolling Kick were
signature moves of Hitmonlee with none of the other
Fighting Pokemon getting them. Low kick, which was not based
on weight prior to Gen 3 and was in fact 50 base power and 90% accurate with a Flinch chance, was only for the Machamp
line in Red and Blue, but then Primeape got it in Yellow. Double Kick was not
Hitmonlee's signature move, but it was the only Fighting
type Pokemon to get it. The remaining moves are
Counter, Seismic Toss, and Submission, two moves that do not actually
deal Fighting type damage, and one that's power
of 80 does not justify it's 80% accuracy and recoil damage. Say it with me kids, if it's not 100% accurate,
it's 50% accurate. The end result of this is that Hitmonchan and Poliwrath's only
Fighting type move options were Counter, Seismic
Toss, and Submission, none of which I think to be good moves. And then a lot of the other
Fighting Pokemon didn't have very many other options. The only Pokemon that
had a lot of options was frickin' Hitmonlee. All Fighting type moves
in Gen 1 and 2 and 3 before the physical special split in Gen 4 were physical attacks which to me makes perfect sense. Fighting is basically the
mascot type for physical moves. The first Fighting specialist
was the Karate Master who didn't get a name
until later generations, but would be called Kiyo or
Koichi depending on the game and also would be called the Karate Master or the Karate King depending on the game. I don't know why they made
it so confusing, but, like, it was confusing. There was also the Elite Four member Bruno who for some reason had two Onixes instead of Primeape and Poliwrath. I don't really understand that decision. I get that Onix is big and strong and intimidating looking like Bruno, but in reality, it's
extremely frickin' weak. It's got a lower attack
stat than Piplup, so, like, why not just give him
Poliwrath and Primeape? Also a fun piece of trivia and that is that the Fighting type is
the only type of all of them to have a gym leader or
Elite Four member specialist in every single generation. This will become apparent
as I go over the specialists as we go along, but I thought it'd be fun
to mention it upfront. So in Gen 1, the Fighting
type was a low tier type. It didn't have access
to a lot of good moves. It wasn't that necessary to beat the types that it was strong against, and it was weak to the
strongest type in the game. But then Gen 2 came along and really buffed the Fighting type by adding two new types that
Fighting was strong against. This became the new type chart for the Fighting type in Generation 2. The new Dark and Steel type
were both weak to Fighting. And while Fighting didn't
gain a resistance to Steel, it did gain one to Dark. The two new types were added primarily to nerf the overpowered Steel type, but they also had the secondary effect of buffing, pun intended,
the Fighting type. Fighting went from being strong
against three types to five which is tied with Ground
for the most of all types. And one of the types
it's strong against is the near unbreakable
wall of the Steel type. Fighting became a super
important type to have around because it was one of
the few that could deal with the really tough to
take down Steel types. Not many Fighting type Pokemon were added. The only fully evolved ones
being Heracross and Hitmontop, but Heracross especially was pretty strong with a really high attack stat. But while not many new Fighting
type Pokemon were added, the previous Gen 1 Fighting
types got a real benefit in Gen 2, not just from
the type chart changing, but also from getting access to new moves. A lot more Fighting moves were added. Plus Karate Chop actually
became a Fighting move. A lot of these moves were either too weak or too inaccurate for my taste, but it was certainly an
improvement over Generation 1. Side note, this just occurred to me while filming this video, why are Mega Punch and Mega
Kick still not Fighting moves? Like, Karate Chop was, like, the most important one to make Fighting because the Karate Master thing. But like Mega Punch and
Mega Kick are very Fighting. They're punches and kicks. Look at all the other punches and kicks that are Fighting moves. Anyways, most of the
new Fighting type moves in Gen 2 went to Machamp, further cementing it as the best Fighting
type Pokemon available. It's especially useful in the Johto games if you get the in-game trade one Macho, which I highly recommend. I've done it before. It's super useful, both against Whitney and
just the rest of the game. The new Fighting specialist
was the Johto gym leader Chuck who uses only Primeape and Poliwrath, the two Kanto Fighting
types Bruno didn't use in the Elite Four in Gen 1. Speaking of Bruno, he was still around. Swapping one of his
Onixes for a Hitmontop. Gen 2 took the Fighting type
for being a type definitely in the lower half to
one of the better ones. Then Gen 3 came along and
improved it even further which is a weird thing to say. I feel like Gen 3 didn't do
much of anything for most types, but then Fighting it buffed it even more. The type chart didn't change, but it added a lot of good new moves and several good new Pokemon. The new fully evolved Pokemon
were Blaziken, Breloom, Hariyama, and Medicham. Of these, Blaziken would go
on to make the biggest impact, especially once getting its
hidden ability Speed Boost. But Breloom was also quite good, especially once the physical
special split happened, and it could actually utilize
its massive Attack stat for Grass moves. And then most of the new
Fighting type moves were quite good. Arm Thrust wasn't super helpful. It's more of an early
game lower-level move. But then you move on to
Brick Break, which I love, being a reliable 100% accurate
move with no drawbacks. Bulk Up is a great boosting move. Focus Punch can be devastating if you use the right strategy. Revenge can be really powerful, and it's especially useful on
slower bulkier Fighting types. Sky Uppercut isn't 100% accurate, which means it's 50% accurate. Yeah, I get it. But it's still really useful. And Superpower can really
devastate some enemy Pokemon especially once Pokemon
with Contrary get it in later generations. Almost every new Fighting type move is at least somewhat useful, which
to me is really impressive especially considering
the sucky move situation for the Fighting type in Gen 1. The Fighting specialist
in Gen 3 was Brawly, the Dewford Town gym leader. He is notable because I had to
level up my Grovyle 10 levels above his Makuhita to beat him my first ever run of
Ruby as a child, so... That was annoying. So Gen 3 happened and the
Fighting type loved it. Then Gen 4 happened
where the devs were like, "Oh, hey, Fighting type, "you know how we gave you a lot
of really strong new Pokemon "and really good new moves? "Here's even more!" Infernape, Lucario, Toxicroak,
and Gallade were added, all being at least decently strong, but Infernape and Lucario would go on to make the biggest impact. Fun fact I can mention now
that I've introduced Lucario and that is that every single
Fighting type gym leader or Elite Four member of which there is one for every generation
uses a Machamp or Lucario on at least one of their teams which is crazy. Gen four also brought the
Physical Special split. So now special physical
attacks could exist. However, a fun quirk
about the Fighting type is that none of its previous generation moves changed categorization
when the split happened. Every Fighting type move introduced in Gens 1 through 3 started physical and remained physical after the split. The only other type to have none of its moves change
categorization is the Psychic type where all of its moves
were special beforehand and stayed special after
the start of Gen 4. So, since all the old Fighting
moves were still physical, they needed to add some
special Fighting type moves. So, they did, along with a lot of other really good
physical Fighting moves. Aura Sphere, Focus Blast, and Vacuum Wave were the three
new special Fighting moves. Aura Sphere was mainly for Lucario, but a few other Pokemon could learn it, and a lot more could learn it once it was made a TR in Gen 8. Focus Blast would be
learned by a lot of Pokemon and would be really
devastating when it hit. You know, once every few weeks. Vacuum Wave was a priority move, like Quick Attack or Mach Punch, and is actually the only
Special 40 power priority move. As for the physical moves, Close Combat is to this day
the best Fighting type move in my opinion. It's super strong, 100% accurate, and while it has the drawback
of lowering the user's Defense and Special Defense, that added frailty can be worked around if the user is already
fast and strong enough to OHKO the target. Drain Punch was a nice
alternative to Brick Break, Force Palm a nice middle road move, Hammer Arm pretty good for
already slow Pokemon move, and Wake Up Slap being a solid move with an odd situational effect. The Fighting specialist was Maylene, the gym leader of Veilstone City and finally one that wasn't
just some meathead jock dude. Gen 4 continued the trend of
improving the Fighting type, and Gen 5 did not stop that trend. While it didn't add really any super useful Fighting type moves, it added a lot of really buff, pun intended, Fighting type Pokemon. The new fully evolved ones were Emboar, the third and thankfully
final Fire Fighting starter, Conkeldurr, Throh, Sawk,
Scrafty, Mienshao, Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion, Keldeo,
and Meloetta's Pirouette form. The last five were the first
Fighting type legendaries, and Keldeo and Meloetta were the first Fighting type Mythical Pokemon. Well, Meloetta was only
Fighting type some of the time, but you get the gist. Of all these Pokemon most would go on to make some kind of impact
on one competitive format or the other, aside from Emboar,
Throh, and the mythicals 'cause the mythicals were banned, at least in my personal experience. From what I've seen Conkeldurr and the Swords of Justice
make the biggest impacts. As I mentioned, most of the new Fighting
moves were not very impactful. The best one, Sacred Sword, was only for the Swords
of Justice at the time. And even then, most of them would still
just run Close Combat. The Fighting specialist was
Marshal, the Elite Four member and the Unova trainer that I think would have the
best chance to defeat Iris and become the next Unova Champion. I talked about this in my "The New Pokemon Champions" video, and you should totally watch it. Since the start of Gen 2, the Fighting type had just
been continuously improving throughout each generation, getting a better type chart,
a lot of great new moves, and a lot of strong new Pokemon. But then Gen 6 came along,
and the devs finally decided it was time to knock the
Fighting type down a peg, sort of. This became the new and
current to this day type chart for the Fighting type. The new Fairy type both resisted Fighting and was super effective against it, making the Fighting type, once again, weak to the best type in the game, just like it being weak
to Psychic in Gen 1. Fairy is not as overpowered as Psychic was back in Gen 1 though, so this was not a death
blow to the Fighting type. It's still really useful
against the five whole types it's strong against when
it's still the only type that's strong against Normal, which back in Gen 1 wasn't that helpful, but nowadays with all the
generations that have gone by, there's a lot of really
strong Normal type Pokemon for which Fighting types are
the only ones that can handle. Plus it's still one of the
few types good against Steel which is another one of
the best types in the game. The new Fighting moves were few, only Flying press, Hawlucha's move, which is actually both
Fighting and Flying, Mat Block, which is only
useful in doubles or triples, and Power Up Punch. a boosting move that can really
snowball a Pokemon's power. It got a lot of use on Mega Kangaskhan, the Pokemon that always hit twice, so it could double its
attack stat in one turn while attacking in the process. The new Fighting Pokemon were Chesnaught, Pangoro, and Hawlucha. None of them were super game changing, but I really like Hawlucha. Fighting was actually the
last type to be combined with Flying, with
Hawlucha being the result. Well, I guess also Fairy
was combined with Flying at the same time when they made Togetic and Togekiss Fairy Flying, but, like, Fighting was
the last one of the ones that existed before Gen 6
to be combined with Flying. So, for the Fighting type in Gen 6, it's matchup chart got worse, it only got one useful new move, and the new Pokemon were
not that impressive. So, why did I say that it was
knocked down a peg sort of? Well that's because of the Megas. Mega Heracross has an absurd attack stat. Mega Blaziken took the
OP Speed Boost Blaziken and made it even stronger. Mega Medicham's ability
Pure Power gives it the second highest attack
stat of all Pokemon behind only Mega Mawile. Mega Lopunny is super fast and strong and can sweep through even
Ghosts thanks to Scrappy. Mega Gallade also hits insanely hard. Mega Lucario has massive
physical and special attack, made even stronger thanks to Adaptability, which increases its STAB
multiplier from 1.5 to two times. It was banned to Ubers, as was of course, the final
Fighting Mega, Mega Mewtwo X. It is tied with the other
Mega Mewtwo and Mega Rayquaza for the highest base stat
total of all usable Pokemon with an absurd 780. The Fighting type's Megas were stacked. So while the addition of
the Fairy type was not great for the Fighting type, the new Mega still made
it a very strong type. The Fighting type specialist was the Shalour City gym leader, Korrina, who was also the mega evolution successor who also annoyingly never
uses her Mega Lucario outside of that Mega Lucario
versus Mega Lucario battle, which is super dumb. Why did they not implement
gym leader rematches? What were X and Y? Gen 7 came along and added a few more strong
Fighting type Pokemon, but that was basically it. The only new Fighting type
move was All Out Pummeling, the Fighting type Z-Move, so
that doesn't really even count. The new fully evolved Fighting
Pokemon were Crabominable, Bewear, Passimian, Kommo-O, Buzzwole, Pheromosa, and Marshadow. The last four are the most important. Kommo-O was the first, and only so far, Fighting type pseudo legend, so it's strong, but not as good as a lot of
the other pseudo legends. Buzzwole was pretty good but held back somewhat by its
speed and Special Defense. Pheromosa is super frail, but
it is so fast and hits so hard that it was banned to
Ubers and Smogon singles. Marshadow is incredibly powerful with its Ghost Fighting STAB combo hitting every existing Pokemon
for at least neutral damage. The only type combo that it can't do that to is Ghost Normal, a type combo that doesn't exist yet. I love Marshadow, but it doesn't get to
see a whole lot of use because it's a mythical Pokemon. So, not only is it really hard to obtain, it's banned in most formats. I honestly wish Marshadow was
a bit weaker and not mythical because I really love it
and would want to use it. The Fighting specialist was Hala, the Kahuna of Melemele Island, then Elite Four member
but only in Sun and Moon. And then we reached
Generation 8, present day. This gen did remove mega evolutions which the Fighting type
certainly did not appreciate but the new max move
for the Fighting type is arguably the best one of all of them. It also got some other nice new moves, but most importantly, in my opinion, several sweet new Pokemon. Grapploct, Sirfetch'd, Falinks, Zamazenta, the Urshifus, and Galarian
Zapdos are the new fully evolved Fighting type Pokemon. Zamazenta's Crown Form is obviously OP, and the Urshifus and Zapdos I believe are pretty freaking good in
the competitive scene, but who cares about that because Grapploct and Falinks are two of my favorite Pokemon of all time! They're so cool. They're not that great
in the competitive scene, but who cares because they're so awesome! Also I really liked Sirfetch'd
and Galarian Zapdos. Can I just say they nailed
Fighting type Pokemon designs in this gen. Also, there were three Gigantamax forms. Gigantamax Machamp and a Gigantamax form for each Urshifu form. These are all the new Fighting type moves. Body Press is actually a really good move, using the Defense stat
instead of the Attack stat, but it's actually more used by non-Fighting type tank Pokemon. Body Press is really useful for a Pokemon with really high Defense and most Fighting type Pokemon
have really high Attack, so it makes more sense for them to use normal physical moves. Coaching is a doubles-only support move. G-Max Chi Strike is
Gigantamax Machamp's move, but it is worse than regular Max Knuckle, one of the best max moves due to boosting the ally's
side physical Attack. Basically an extra powerful Power Up Punch that can benefit your partner too. The next four moves are
signature moves of new Pokemon, the best of which is Galarian
Zapdos's Thunderous Kick. The Fighting specialist is Bea, the Stow-on-Side gym
leader in Pokemon Sword. Mustard was also a Fighting
gym leader many years in the past before becoming Champion. So in the end, the Fighting
type started at not that great but really grew and grew to
become an extremely useful type that I think is important to
have on darn near every team. I certainly aim to have one on every team, and I suggest you do too. Thanks so much for watching, and an extra special thanks
to my patrons over on Patreon who are helping support
my channel independent of fluctuating YouTube ad rates. If you want to help
support me in the same way, the link is in the description below. Also if you wanna check out some more of my fun Pokemon content, I
recommend these videos here. All right, that's all I have for now. So, until next time, Pokefans, gotta catch them all.
