You raise good points,honestly,and I agree with you on the outcome of the match up also,but with this thread I was kind of getting to understand why do people believe Hiruzen could beat Hashirama when he can't beat Madara who was weaker than Hashirama
I think the author made it clear that Madara and Hashirama are in a tier of their own,but some people agree Madara wins,but will say that Hashirama loses,because of a statement
anyways rep to you for the good response
the answer would be three things i think:
1. the fight in the chuunin exams between hashirama and hiruzen. this was a terrible depiction of hashirama's power and it made us believe hiruzen is stronger. some people cannot get this out of their mind.
2. statements made by characters in the series. several characters have stated that hiruzen was god of shinobi and that he was the strongest hokage. people also take this as fact eventhough it may not have been intended as thus.
3. the sheer magnitude of madara's abilities is overwhelming, so it causes us to think that there is no way that hashirama could have won, in part because of the chuunin exams fight. since we have seen the amazing capabilities of madara we are more inclined to say he can beat hiruzen, rather than hashirama being able to do it because we have seen very limited power from him.
imo both madara and hashirama can beat hiruzen because as madara said, they both have power enough to change maps. hiruzen does not have this power as far as we have seen. hiruzen may be a better all around ninja, and that is why he is called the god of shinobi, but he does not have power on par with the other two, so they win. it would be kind of similar to kakashi vs naruto. kakashi is by far a better all around ninja imo, but he cant beat naruto because his power is overwhelming and kakashi does not have jutsu that can match him. being able to use one jutsu to its fullest extent is more important than being all around skilled in this show unfortunately. that is why it appears that sharingan and wood style>hiruzen