User blog comment:Blackendedsoul/Swordsmen, Mihawk and others./@comment-3242083-20110217202503

My impression: Mihawk is the strongest swordsman in the world, not only by word of mouth. Shanks, Aokiji, Kizaru, Rayleigh - all of them use a sword, but more as a means to an end.

Shanks fought several times with Mihawk, which of course implies that he is skilled enough to be an effective sparring partner - but I believe his true power lies in his immense mastery of Haki(especially his insane King's haki), not swordsmanship. It is the combination of being able to skillfully wield a sword, his powerful crew and haki that makes him a Yonkou (probably the reason why people question Mihawk's skills, since he is "only" a shichibukai). Could he beat up Mihawk? Probably. But not because he is the better swordsman (if you can even call him one).

Similar case with Rayleigh, he only used his sword against Kizaru (where he needed it, apparently). In every other case his "weapon" of choice was the excessive use of haki.

Aokiji/Kizaru. I don't even consider this real swordsmanship. To lazy to explain why, make your own guess :).

Law. Again, his weapon of choice (so far) is his devil fruit ability, I can't even recall when he ever used the sword? Would be nice if anyone could refresh my memory... if it ever happened at all?

Vista. He is the swordsman of the most powerful (ex-)Yonkou. That being said, his performance during the Marinefold war was underwhelming. Good, he was able to last a while against Mihawk, but seriously, who got the impression he could defeat him there? I certainly not.

Momonga. Sometimes it feels like I live in a twilight zone or so, because I can not understand why people value that guy so much. He did nothing, virtually nothing that justifies him being a strong whatever. Ok, he killed a relative small Seaking, big deal. But I would not even use his name in the same sentence with figures like Mihawk, Shanks or Rayleigh.

In the end, I don't doubt that Mihawk would loose against the prominent names up there, but not because his swordsmanship is inferior. He is the best in that department.