User blog comment:AYET/Post-TS SHP member vs old pre-TS foe (Part 1)/@comment-4493594-20120716084224/@comment-3425840-20120717071022

Firstly, I do agree it was a serious fight, however it was heavily backed by plot armor. Luffy's idiocy was well known to Usopp and he took advantage of that. Yes that is a valid factor in battle but when I was talking about strength, I meant overall strength against a random opponent.

Let me elaborate, Pre Skip Luffy would probably beat Enel in every battle but still I think Enel was stronger of the two (he had a natural weakness against Luffy in particular but against any other opponent he would be far more devastating).

Pre skip Luffy defeated people like Rob Lucci and Gecko Moriah without plot armor, I honestly do not think that Man Usopp can do the same.

Luffy fought numerous people including Magellan in Impel Down, even in the later times when he was already treated from near death injury (yes he had tension hormones injected but the sheer amount of fighting he did was enormous). I don't think Man Usopp could pull that off.

If they were strangers and fought each other with no prior knowledge about their respective opponents, then Usopp and Luffy's battle would not last even a minute.

Also if the then weakling Usopp has grown so much as to have a base strength greater that Luffy who took out two Schichbukai (one genuinely), how much has Luffy grown? If the proportion is same, he should be able to easily dismantle an admiral however I doubt that is the case.

About Lola, yes it is unknown if they were under protection or not but I did say about Straw Hat being underling kinda people. Honestly I don't think all of the Straw Hats are capable of traveling in New World ALONE even now meaning the weakers are under protection of the strongers of the crew.