Yes.
That argument never gets old. When or who Mihawk beat to get the title is irrelevant. Oda has stated Mihawk is the world's strongest swordsmen - it is a fact and it means he is stronger than Rayleigh. The point of Mihawk's character is to make whoever beats him the strongest swordsman.
Rayleigh was mentioned in the same breath as WB. Garp said the WG wouldn't be able to handle him while fighting WB. It doesn't matter wether his prime comes from the past - it's the same with Sengoku/Garp/WB as well. Prime or not, Rayleigh has as much hype as the big boys out there and was portrayed to be as strong as Kizaru. It is in no way comparable with Vista who we know for a fact is weaker than Mihawk and just one of the people who lack the hype but was able to prove he can fight the big boys for some time.
The ultimate obstacle Zoro (who has always been on the same level as the future PK throughout the series and only second to him) is going to fight someone who is not on that level? That's funny because being the guy one of the main characters want to surpass means you have to be super strong as we also see this with Shanks. He is at the top of all swordsmen which includes someone like Rayleigh and possible even Shanks if he doesn't have anything other than swordsmanship.
Like I said, that the translation you're using doesn't make any sense at all. Cnet/CCC have proven themselves to be the best and theirs make the most sense.
Cnet:
Kuzan: At any rate, you people should keep a close eye on Doflamingo. / He is both a Shichibukai and the current King of Dresrosa... // In a different way from the Hebihime of the Kuja, he is a special case to say the least. / You should contact Sakazuki and have the Admirals take action. // In the worst-case scenario, he could send a whole chain of gears running awry... // ...and cause the biggest incident... // ...since Sakazuki established his new Marine HQ.
CCC:
Kuzan: “Anyway… don’t take your eyes off of Doflamingo”
“He’s a Shichibukai and the current king of Dressrosa”
“But he’s different from the Snake Princess of the Kuja. A pirate who’s exceptional in more ways than one.”
“Contact Sakazuki and tell him to mobilize the Admirals”
“Things could go from bad to worse, and fast…”
“It could be the most dire situation…”
“That Sakazuki and his new Marine HQ have faced”
Doflamingo, who's prowess is supposedly unrivalled, is the guy that becomes scared at the thought of hearing Kaido's name? Doesn't make sense at all. We've seen how the likes of Akainu who are the counterpart of the top pirates deal with the likes of people like Ace/Iva/Jinbei who all are on the same level as Law and that is flat out destroy them, even when not heavily injured. Doflamingo who's prowess is supposedly unrivalled was not only fighting an injured and tired Law for some time but on top of that he got damaged. Law put up a low difficulty fight so that means it would be mid difficulty or so if he was injured.
Doflamingo is the biggest threat to the new marine HQ who are located in the New World because of his business - the SAD which everyone are interested in. (// In the worst-case scenario, he could send a whole chain of gears running awry... // ...and cause the biggest incident...) Akainu only sent one Admiral to deal with the situation so that obviously means an Admiral needs to be sent in order to guarantee a victory. Doflamingo doesn't have any hype that suggests he is on the same level as the man Zoro wants to surpass. He is however on the same level as the current Luffy who's going to defeat him this arc and this Luffy is on the same level as Ace which Kizaru who was portayed as strong as a man weaker than Mihawk could fodderize like his Fleet Admiral since he's slightly weaker than him(or slighty stronger, whichever you prefer).
Good one. There was no sign of him panting from the time he arrived to PH till the time Aokiji appeared. Only when he was casually frozen by an ex Admiral did he begin heavily panting. It was Doflamingo who underestimated the speed of an ex Admiral and figured the distance between them was enough to finish off a threat to his business before the ex Admiral can stop him and not that Aokiji saw Doflamingo as a threat.
That's not what people who are known to be consistent have translated. And again, this one makes much more sense given Doflamingo's action after this incident.
Cnet:
Doflamingo: I don't feel like fighting with you... Fuffuffu!!! / But if I won't be able to silence that man... // I suppose I'll have to take a different approach!! // ...Mind if I ask you something?
CCC:
DD: “I don’t much feel like fighting you… fuffuffu!!”
“But if I’m unable to silence that man here and now…”
“I’ll have to change my plans!!”
It's funny how you believe Shilliew is going to defeat Mihawk when there is absolutely nothing pointing towards that. Exactly what implies that's going to happen? Sometimes you don't need to be Oda to 'predict' these kinds of things and this is one of those things. It's been heavily foreshadowed Blackbeard will be the man Luffy will fight for his dream since Jaya arc but of course since he's not Mihawk it is going to happen, aye? There's as much chance the people implied to lose to Luffy will be replaced like the ones implied Zoro is going to defeat, but it is so small that you shouldn't put that over what is more likely to happen.
Easily? The only one who cut it easily was the same man who caused the attack - the blind Admiral. You can see by Doflamingo's and Law's facial expression they put in effort into getting out of that danger which an Admiral level opponent casually performed. He could have ran away like how the fodder marines had plently of time to but he trusted his own abilities which did work but with effort.
That would be blood and not dirt. Akainu was also seen completely fine after his battle with WB even though the page before and the page after shows he was not. It's the same with Doflamingo. He got an injury on a specific place but Oda forgot to have add it on that panel. It's funny because I just noticed it's on similar place Law damaged him. Perhaps someone of Law's calibre did it to him in the war.
He wasn't fast enough to finish off an exhausted and injured Zoro who was fighting for hours. In fact, he needed to use a named attack that was 100 of them which moved at the speed of light and not a single one of them touched Zoro in the sad state he was in. The one time he speed blitzed Zoro was when Zoro was getting back up from when Kuma deflected his attack because of not having haki. High durability? Sure. But no endurance. Being made of the same things as the Pacifista's which the M3 can easily destroy with one move is bad. Enel is extremely fast, can finish off people with one move, bad endurance and island DC just like Kuma but that doesn't mean he's stronger than the people you placed below Kuma. Mihawk was testing Luffy's strength and he was able to damage Luffy from a far distance without hitting anyone in between them so that tells how how accurate his long ranged attacks are. Rayleigh is 100 stronger than Luffy and that means it's more for Mihawk since he's stronger than Rayleigh so they basically barely need to flex their muscles to get rid of the likes of Luffy. Oh and Mihawk casually and by mistake cut that iceberg in half from a far distance without the use of devil fruit and only Admiral level people have done stuff like these(Kizaru in SA). Kuma looking good in those situations doesn't put him above Mihawk, Doflamingo, Boa, and Law because we know for a fact they would also look good as well. They have much better feat for defeating Vice Admirals or being strong enough to stalemate an Admiral(Mihawk) and those are many times stronger than the SH combined so until Kuma proves he can do the same, you have no right putting him above them. Like I said, we have good indication were how strong the normal Kuma was which is on the same level as Ivankov who implied he was stronger than Kuma. Could that have changed, since it was in the past? Absolutely. However, not by a signifcant amount because never points to that and Oda left it ambigous so the difference is small. What we can deduce is that they are on the same level, regardless who is stronger. What happens to people at that said level? They get destroyed by the Admiral level people as we've seen Akainu do so with three different people of that level while people like Rayleigh who is weaker than Mihawk was shown to be as strong as Kizaru who is slightly weaker than Akainu(or slightly stronger, if you will). If I'm not mistaken, Rayleigh was confident he could protect the SH from both Kizaru and Kuma if he was at his peak which again means Kuma was far off Admiral level because it's simple math that two from same level > one from same level.
