Originally posted by CPT Space Bomb
Basically this. Zod has not a single win under his belt. He lost every fight he's been in. Thanos snaps his neck like he did to Loki.
The only fight he lost while powered up was against someone who would dominate Thanos physically.
It is also interesting that people are disparaging Zod's fighting skill for losing to Jor-El. Have they never considered that, as formidable as Zod is, Jor-El is a super mary sue who is better than masters of other disciplines at what they specialize in? Because barring that, Zod was shown to be much better hand-to-hand than Superman, blocking and countering his blows in stand-up fighting easily. Thanos' notable feat of skill is dismantling Hulk, who is even less skilled as a fighter than Superman. Zod is also physically less formidable than Superman, whereas Thanos is at least physically comparable to Hulk. Ironically, Zod gaining flight actually demonstrably made Superman's fight with him easier for him, presumably because Superman has more experience fighting while flying and flying in general.
Anyway, this is Zod in the armour, but post mask weakness. At best, you can argue that Thanos is comparable to Zod in strength and durability. Frankly, he is likely stronger. But in agility, reflexes, or speed? Zod utterly dwarfs Thanos, even without flight. He is laughably faster. Thanos will desperately struggle to hit the much smaller and quicker Zod, while Zod will be torpedoing Thanos through buildings while beating the shit out of him.
Zod wins. Thanos might be tough enough to last for a while, but he will almost certainly lose.