Filler Yamcha (Buu Saga) and Olibu are not Cell tier

[dragonball0900]

This is a common misconception people have that just because Yamcha defeated Olibu that means he is Super Perfect Cell tier. But that is not the case.

The main reason why people think that way is because of the Pikkon vs Cell, Frieza and King Cold scene. I have to say that we shouldn't take that scene seriously at all. And why? Well, we have more feats during the Other World Tournament. We have Pikkon fighting against Olibu (a better fight than the one from Cell, who got stomped). Pikkon didn't have any problems in defeating Olibu. However, Pikkon later fought Base Goku and he struggled more with him. The fight was more even and that forced Pikkon to remove his weights. Now, you might say: "oh! But Pikkon wouldn't increase over 50 times his strength just because of removing his weights!", well, that is filler you. And the fact is that we see Weighted Pikkon struggling more against Base Goku than against Olibu. Base Goku is certainly not Cell tier, not even SSJ Goku was Cell tier, so saying that Olibu is Super Perfect Cell tier just because he fought against Pikkon better than Cell would be like saying Base Goku is Super Perfect Cell tier, which is just not true. The Pikkon vs Cell fight simply contradicts everything we see later on.

Go forward to the Buu Saga. We have Krillin telling King Kai that Goku and Vegeta were far stronger than him and Yamcha, that they would never be able to defeat a villian that not even Goku and Vegeta could. We know that Majin Vegeta, as stated in the series, was not that far above Super Perfect Cell. That means that Yamcha and Krillin were far below that level. And if we take the scene of Filler Yamcha beating Olibu seriously, then that puts him and Filler Krillin somewhere around Base Goku tier since Olibu is simply Base Saiyan tier. Not SSJ2 tier like many people believe.

[Lionel]

Haven't watched the filler depicting Goku's escapades in the afterlife for some time now. I can't believe Yamcha would be comparable to Base Goku, nevermind Super Perfect Cell or SSJ Goku. It's not because I wouldn't like to see an avenue paved for the concept. We just don't have any explainable cause for it. Yamcha retired from martial arts seven years ago when the Olibu fight was shown. A brief stint as a prospective trainee in the afterlife while awaiting your eventual resurrection shouldn't elevate you that much, not when the people in question have been training there far, far longer than you have.

Now I could more easily believe Krillin becoming a challenge to Base Goku if it was confirmed that he trained consistently with his wife before retiring. Given what we know of cyborgs in retrospect, someone like Krillin would benefit tremendously and could plausibly reach, maybe even surpass, someone like Base Goku.

[theherodjl]

If I remember right, Tenshinhan & Yamcha were able to hold a Cell Jr in place to be struck by Piccolo so Yamcha did/does indeed have some strength to him. Yamcha may not have been able to contend with the hardest hitters of DBZ but he's not as absolutely weak/useless as he is perceived to be by a certain degree of the fandom. Had Boo arc Yamcha appeared at any point prior to SSJ-tier opponents, he'd likely have been the strongest or one of the strongest fighters.