The connecting record
shownDragon Ball Super (manga) · ch. 73
Granolah beat Son Goku in Dragon Ball Super (manga).
Struck over the heart by the real Granolah after an illusion clone had drawn out Goku's best form; Vegeta steps in before the kill.
What each of them is ranked on
The winner · Granolah · rank 15
manga
He wishes to be the strongest in the universe and briefly is, which the story presents as a purchase with an expiry rather than an achievement. That is unusually self-aware for the genre and it is why he is here: an entry whose title was granted by a mechanism, held for an arc, and lost on schedule. Manga only.
shownDragon Ball Super (manga) · Granolah the Survivor arc
Granted the strength of the universe's strongest by a wish, temporarily. — 2021
Beaten · Son Goku · rank 5
manga · anime · films
The longest depicted record anybody here has, and he is fifth because several of the entries above him have scored on him directly. Ultra instinct is the real thing — a state the narration describes as moving without deciding to, and which the panels back up by having him evade things he is not looking at. The screen and the page agree about him more consistently than about anyone else in this franchise.
shownDragon Ball Super (manga) · Universe Survival arc
Fights Jiren in ultra instinct in the tournament's final stage. — 2018
shownDragon Ball Z · Frieza Saga
Defeats Frieza on Namek as a Super Saiyan. — 1991
What this does not settle
One fight in one work. It is the only result the record gives between these two, and it is evidence about that meeting and nothing wider — not a general matchup, not a rematch, and not a ranking of its own.
The ladder above it is argued from everything either of them has been shown doing; this page is argued from one citation.
Where the two disagree, the disagreement is the point, and it stays visible rather than being resolved by whichever of them happens to be on this page.