How strong was Dabura before the Majin boost?

[DBZAOTA482]

How strong do you estimate Dabura was before Babidi possessed him?

I'd say Cell Games Vegeta w/o magic and Initial Perfect Cell w/magic.

[Galan007]

Probably around Cell Junior-level.

[Hugo Boss]

Dabra's demonic powers unlocked are said to make him as strong as Cell, he should be somewhat weaker than Super Saiyan Gohan, but still stronger than Yakon, before then.

[Super Vegetto]

How strong do you estimate Dabura was before Babidi possessed him?

I'd say Cell Games Vegeta w/o magic and Initial Perfect Cell w/magic.

Well probably stronger than Kaioshin but under Cell Saga SSJ level

[Lord Beerus]

I'd say Full Power SSJ Goku level strong.

[Pantalones]

somewhat weaker than Super Saiyan Gohan, but still stronger than Yakon, before then.

That is an incredibly huge range... Yakon's not that far from the adult base Saiyans going by Goku's fight with him and the way Gohan thought that the two of them fighting together could win even with the darkness and their inability to go Super Saiyan against him.

But anyway... it seems unlikely to me that Babidi's spell is going to draw out levels of hidden power anywhere near comparable to what Gohan got from the old Kaioshin's version (old Kaioshin's version goes "far, far, faaaaar beyond your limits" after all.) So I figure that Dabura was probably not that much weaker originally than he was when we saw him -- certainly not anywhere near as weak as someone like Yakon, anyway. If you figure that Vegeta went from "maybe around SSj2 Kid Gohan level" before (he did comment that Goku had "also" surpassed Gohan at one point after seeing a glimpse of his SSj2 power) to "just above SSj2 Kid Gohan level, equal to SSj2 Goku" after then maybe Dabura went from... "just below whatever form of Cell you think he's closest to" before, to "just above whatever form of Cell you think he's closest to" after.

On the other hand, it's possible that Dabura is someone who did (or still does) train -- the anime at least (can't remember if this is 100% filler) has him preparing for battle in his "meditation chamber" which is similar to the long periods of meditation-based training we know Piccolo and several others have gone through -- so Dabura 300+ years ago before he joined Babidi very would could have been drastically weaker than the Dabura we saw, so long as he was still strong enough to qualify as "strongest in the Demon Realm" back then. Babidi's spell brought him from wherever he was then to "beyond the limits" of whatever his current potential was, but since then he trained further (just like Krillin and Gohan did after their potential-unlock on Namek) and become even stronger than the level that was "beyond his limits" before.

Even the bare minimum power of "pre-Majin, pre-300-years-of-maybe-sometimes-training" Dabura should be above Freeza's full power, though, seeing as how the East Kaioshin talks about him as being basically the Demon Realm's equivalent of Freeza's "strongest in the universe" claim.

[nickzambuto]

If I'm correct, Goku originally said something along the lines of "a few years ago we fought a guy named Cell. This guy is probably about as strong as him." Later, when Dabura powered up, Goku explicitly said "it seems we underestimated him" or something to that effect. Therefore I conclude Dabura was likely stronger than Cell in the Boo arc, and since the Majin couldn't have enhanced him dramatically, he was probably dead even with Cell under his own power.

[Berserker1921]

If I'm correct, Goku originally said something along the lines of "a few years ago we fought a guy named Cell. This guy is probably about as strong as him." Later, when Dabura powered up, Goku explicitly said "it seems we underestimated him" or something to that effect. Therefore I conclude Dabura was likely stronger than Cell in the Boo arc, and since the Majin couldn't have enhanced him dramatically, he was probably dead even with Cell under his own power.

He is probably almost ssj2 gohan from cell games power. But he could also be super perfect cell power. I mean Goku never really met or sensed super perfect cell. So who knows.

[Hugo Boss]

somewhat weaker than Super Saiyan Gohan, but still stronger than Yakon, before then.

That is an incredibly huge range...

It is, but given the powerlevels of Goku and Yakon respectively, 3,000 and 800, I assume Gohan and Dabra might be somewhere in that range, with Dabra's powerlevel before meeting Babidi still above 800. Something like 1,500-2,000. By the way, excellent post.

[Doctor.]

It's impossible to know for sure. The majin boost depends on the potential. Considering Dabra is a demon, his potential should at least be higher than Vegeta's, so he probably got a bigger boost. Now if he was originally weaker than someone like Freeza, for instance, that's impossible to know. But Kaioshin's reaction at least implies that Dabra was stronger than Kaioshin originally, so I reckon he was around Cell Games SS Goku before and doubled his strength to around Super Perfect Cell's strength, but still relatively inferior, like he was in the Boo arc.

[supercat]

I'd say Dabura sat somewhere in the same realm of power as MSSJ Gohan (Cell Games), as Kaioshin (who should be a few notches above Cell Jr.) was absolutely awe-struck when he saw him aligned with Babidi. That said, the overseer's cautious behavior around useless fodders like Pui Pui (Captain Ginyu-tier at best) and Yakon (presumably weaker than Final Form Frieza 25%) opens up doors to the possibility that the demon king was initially inferior to Frieza, but saw a major amplification in power due to the large quantities of evil energy circulating through his essence.