G. Zass Burgess

G. Zass Burgess (G・ザス・バージェス, G. Zasu Bājesu), also known by his moniker as "Champion" (チャンピオン, Chanpion), is a fictional character and antagonist of the One Piece series. He is the helmsman and captain of the First Ship of the Blackbeard Pirates.

At Mock Town, Burgess serves Marshall D. Teech hunting for the 100 million berry pirate. At Impel Down, Burgess helps his captain gather recruits for his pirate forces.

Due to his actions, he is a major antagonist in the Navyford Arc, and the tertiary antagonist of the Dressrosa Arc, as he is one of the competitors for the Flame-Flame Fruit in Dressrosa.

"The champion takes the stage! Everyone can just bring it! Let's go, Blackbeard Pirates!"
 * —G. Zass Burgess.

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice Actor: Phil Parsons (English), Tetsu Inada (Japanese), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (German), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (French), Not Known (Latin American Spanish)

Appearance
Burgess G. Zass is an unusually big, tall, broad, broad-chested, broad shouldered, tan-skinned, muscular man, with a broad upper body and a thin lower body in comparison. He has curly violet hair reaching down to his shoulders and always wears a dark brown mask with orange decorations on it, which covers the upper part of his face but reveals his eyes and his nose. He appears to be based on Luchador wrestlers based on his name and the face mask of Mexican origin.

Pre-Timeskip
He wears a sleeveless brown shirt and a pair of white pants with ruffles coming from the base then reaching up to his knees; he also wears black bands tied around both elbows. Burgess also appears to be always wearing a championship belt, a belt which wrestlers only obtain from winning many matches or to show that they are extremely skilled in wrestling. It is unknown if Burgess obtained this belt from his mastery in wrestling or if its just there for his wrestler appearance.

Post-Timeskip
After the timeskip, Burgess has grown a beard and become even more muscular. His hair has also turned a lighter shade than what it was two years ago. While at the Corrida Colosseum, Burgess dons the traditional gladiator attire of sandals and a loincloth, as well as his trademark belt. In addition, his right arm is armored, with his shoulder being covered by a plate pauldron, all held in place by a harness across his chest. He also wears a pair of black gloves. When he first entered the Colosseum as Mr. Store, he was wearing a light green paper bag mask which has eyeholes in it and the name "Store" which is colored aqua-blue and Happy written in black upside-down on the forehead.

His regular outfit after the timeskip is mostly the same as two years ago. However, he now wears a vertically striped black and white sleeveless shirt that has the same orange symbol as his luchador mask. In Dressrosa, he also carries a green bag which has Devil Fruit patterns on it.


 * Hair Color: Violet
 * Skin Color: Brownish Tan
 * Eye Color: Black
 * Age: Not Known
 * Birthday: December 25th
 * Height: Not Known
 * Weight: Not Known

Personality
Burgess is brutish and ogre-like, and is also very loud and overbearing. He seems to be overconfident, as he climbed buildings and challenged random people in Jaya, proclaiming himself as the Champion. He also appears to have an intense love of combat, wanting to test his skills out on anyone he finds. He especially enjoys strong opponents, as shown when he found out that Luffy D. Monkey was fighting at the Corrida Colosseum. Despite, or perhaps because of his profound love for combat, Burgess also appears to be a sore loser, unable to accept defeat even when he is critically injured. He is also willing to use whatever dirty and underhanded tactics he can should he or his allies be unable to win in a straight up fight, as evidenced by how he joined the rest of The Blackbeard Pirates in their nine-on-one assault against Whitebeard.

He has a much more serious nature than his captain, as he scolded Blackbeard for laughing when they lost the Straw Hat Pirates. However, he seems to have become quite laid-back after the time-skip shown when meeting Luffy D. Monkey in the Corrida Colosseum hallways and letting his captain talk to him.

Late into the Dressrosa Arc, Burgess also displayed a ruthless opportunistic mindset, willing to take advantage of Luffy's weakened state to kill him and take his Curséd Fruit, despite the fact that Luffy was the country's best chance at saving them from the oppressive Doflamingo. This is further shown when he tried to kill Sabo just to get his hands on the Flame-Flame Fruit when he interfered in his attempts to kill Luffy, believing that it was his right to have the fruit.

After becoming a Pirate Emperor and gaining a fleet of ships, Blackbeard began going by the new title of "Admiral Teech". Burgess repeatedly forgets to address Blackbeard by this moniker after habitually calling him "Captain Teech", as Raffit has needed to remind him several times in the past not to do this.

According to himself, he is attached to the crew's raft.

Friends/Allies

 * Blackbeard Pirates
 * Marshall D. Teech
 * Van Ogre
 * Doc Q
 * Raffit
 * Stronger
 * Shiryu
 * San Juan Wolf
 * Vasco Shot
 * Catarina Devon
 * Avalo Pizarro

Enemies

 * Gol D. Roger
 * Monkey D. Rex
 * Red-Haired Pirates
 * Shanks
 * Whitebeard Pirates
 * Whitebeard
 * Portgaz D. Ace
 * Straw Hat Pirates
 * Monkey D. Luffy
 * Jimbei
 * World Government
 * Bonney Pirates
 * Jewelry Bonney

Abilities and Powers
Burgess is one of the most powerful members of the Blackbeard Pirates. He managed to defeat every challenger he fought in Mock Town with ease and won the A Block of the Corrida Colosseum battle royale within seconds all without a single injury. After the time-skip, he is the Captain of the First Ship of the Blackbeard Pirates.

Based off of his attempt on Luffy's life for the Gum-Gum Fruit and his conversation with Sabo, he is also capable of stealing Curséd Fruit abilities from others. The procedure for this is still unknown.

After the time-skip, at the Corrida Colosseum just his mere presence was enough to terrify all the nearby gladiators. He is also, according to Gatz, part of a group of Ten Titanic Captains that personally guard the Emperor, Blackbeard.

Physical Abilities
Burgess has tremendous physical strength. He easily ripped an entire building off its foundations and threw it at Ace across a great distance. In the Corrida Colosseum, he completely overpowered all of his opponents in Block A including a giant in the anime by himself single-handedly within seconds. Burgess's strength also extends to his legs as he jumped down from the Dressrossa palace to the second level without a scratch, allowing him to make it to Luffy's location in a very short amount of time, a feat that greatly shocked Koala.

Burgess also possesses massive endurance, as seen (pre time-skip) when he took a direct hit from a Tremor-Tremor Fruit strike from the former Emperor Edward Newgate, as well as Fleet Admiral Sengoku's shockwave in his Buddha form without suffering much damage. In Dressrossa, Burgess took Sabo's Kaen Ryuou at point blank range, which blasted him with enough firepower to smash him through buildings, and recovered enough to quickly resumed the battle. After being defeated by Sabo in a heavily injured state, Burgess survived being brutally burned by Sabo's Fire Fist after he insulted Trace in his failed attempt to steal the Flame-Flame Fruit. Despite suffering so much damage, Burgess could stow himself away on a ship of the Revolution Army travelling to Baltigo for an extended period of time without any medical treatment, allowing him to contact Raffit to inform of his location in Baltigo while still on the verge of death.

Burgess is also an immensely powerful and skilled wrestler. His wrestling attacks such as elbow strikes and lariats can generate massive shockwaves that can demolish buildings with great ease.

Haki

 * Main article: Haki

Burgess demonstrated the use of Armament Haki when he hardened his elbow armor in an attempt to resist Sabo's attack in the Corrida Colosseum final round. However, his Haki was not strong enough to counter Sabo's own Armament Haki imbued attack, which was able to shatter his armor.

Attacks

 * Shockwave Elbow (波動エルボー, Hadō Erubō): Burgess attacks with an elbow strike powerful enough to cause huge shock waves upon the impact. It was first seen during the finals of Corrida Colosseum against a Fighting Fish, sending it flying away, and at the same time a shock wave to the audience, causing massive destruction. In the anime, his arm vibrates while preparing for the attack and his elbow emits vibrational waves similar to those of Eight-Impact Fist techniques.


 * Galleon Lariat (ガレオンラリアット, Gareon Rariatto): Burgess swings his arm at his opponent, resulting in a shockwave powerful enough to cut buildings several meters away completely in half. This was first used against Sabo.

Weapons
During the battle of Navyford, he was seen using two pistols against Whitebeard.

When Burgess tried to kill Luffy, he wielded a large dagger.

Past
Some time after joining Blackbeard's crew, Burgess and the entire crew attacked Drum Island and forced the cowardly King Wapol to flee.

Canon

 * Jesus Burgess and Van Ogre vs. Portgaz D. Ace
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Magellan
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Edward Newgate
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Fleet Admiral Sengoku
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Bonney Pirates
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Whitebeard Pirates (under Marco, unseen)
 * Jesus Burgess vs. Corrida Colosseum Group A
 * Corrida Colosseum Finale
 * G. Zass Burgess vs. Fighting Fish
 * G. Zass Burgess vs. Lucy
 * G. Zass Burgess vs. Sabo
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Revolutionary Army (unseen)
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Cipher Pol (unseen)

Non-Canon

 * G. Zass Burgess vs. Monkey D. Garp

Notes & Trivia

 * When his face is shown unmasked for the first time, it is not seen in full view. This is likely a reference to Luchador culture, as it is considered shameful for a masked wrestler to be unmasked, causing the loss of their character identity/alter ego identity in the ring and their exposure of their true identity.