Though, he criticized Blackbeard's defense, which we already kinda knew was a weak point. Teach's offense with a blade may be at a high threatening level while his defense is a fair bit lower as we saw. Yonkou offense, sub-yonkou defense.
It wouldn't surprise me if Shank was more balanced between offense and defense and thus overall closer to Whitebeard's level than Teach is. Hadn't Shanks clashed with Whitebeard several times in the past?
(Admittedly, a fair amount of the above is speculation, it's just what I guess)
I will point out how he's fought Mihawk and Whitebeard several times, and we saw he's strong enough to clash blades with Whitebeard at the least.
Sure, he got some scars, but he didn't necessarily lose the fight.
Shanks is striking me as quite mediocre ATM, and if the other Yonkou did have a serious rivalry with Moria....thats still not that impressive considering Moria's kind of a pussy.
When they clashed Moria did get wiped out so it's pretty clear Kaidou's quite the stronger.
Moria, while directly not the most powerful of shichibukai (but still strong enough to do things like the shadow spear that killed Oars Jr), does have the potential to have the greatest military might too. He could've had a really serious army of zombies at the time for all we know, plus he had a live crew at the time too. So he might've brought quite a force to bear.
Didn't he only start massing zombies after his live crew was pwned? I'm pretty sure that's when he went hardcore with them at the least.
Sure he used to duel Mihawk, but if Mihawk holds the title of "Worlds greatest swordsman" it says that Shanks may have been a peer, but still inferior to Mihawk. Hell, one of Whitebeards underlings was stalemating Mihawk, so again... that's not really a boost to Shanks.
I'm going to say that he never faced a serious Whitebeard, because he's, you know, alive.
He only went zombie-only after, but he had his shadow power all along so...
Maybe he just focused on shadow-boosting himself more? He still likely had a ton of shadows however he used them.
Sure he used to duel Mihawk, but if Mihawk holds the title of "Worlds greatest swordsman" it says that Shanks may have been a peer, but still inferior to Mihawk. Hell, one of Whitebeards underlings was stalemating Mihawk, so again... that's not really a boost to Shanks.
While that guy was good and it sounded like he was one of the most famous swordsmen in the world, he was never called Mihawk's rival like Shanks was.
Also, Red-hair has more than swordsmanship. Haoshoku haki again, and unlike even Boa he's probably mastered it. Silvers Rayleigh wasn't the best swordsman in the world either, but he's a sworduser who can fight off an admiral with similar tools.
I just get the feeling that all of the Yonkou are going to be shown as seriously scary.
I'm going to say that he never faced a serious Whitebeard, because he's, you know, alive.
That or he did, but he's just that badass 🙂