User blog comment:Dinosel/One Piece Discussion/Theory! Shanks vs Mihawk!/@comment-24850639-20160725145642

Let's leave power and influence out of this discussion. Power and influence are what make someone a Yonko, not your fighting ability. So I don't think trying to use Shanks status as a Yonko holds water in this discussion. In the same light, lets also leave Mihawk's status as Shichibukai out of this. We don't know when either of them acquired these titles, and what all went into them earning these titles. All we know, is that in the past these 2 fought each other frequently, and their battles "echoed accross the grand line". There are reasons Shanks ended up a Yonko and Mihawk didn't, and there are reasons Mihawk ended up as the "World's Greatest" and Shanks didn't.

So to keep this based purely on fighting ability, we have to go based on what we've seen, which unfortunately isn't a lot from Shanks perspective. Benn Beckman did all the work against Haguma and the bandits, Whitebeard was equally responsible for the sky splitting above them in their clash, and conqueror's haki isn't an ability thats going to work against Mihawk. HOWEVER, while WB was equally responsible for splitting the sky, Shanks still only did it with one arm. Same goes for him stopping a punch made of F'ing magma, with just his sword alone, and from an Admiral at that. Said Admiral had no qualms fighting Whitebeard (even though he was clearly scared/intimidated), but COMPLETELY stopped his offensive when Shanks showed up (and before his crew was visible to anyone). In my opinion, Mihawk doesn't carry the gravitas to stop an admiral like that in quite the same way. Not that he couldn't, but Akainu literally stopped fighting, and did nothing else for the rest of the war. We saw Mihawk effortlessly cleave an entire mountain in half with just a swing, and fend of Zoro's Santoryu with a pocket knife. We've seen him cut ships in half, and plenty of other impressive feats with his blade, so here's what it comes down to for me:

1.) While their track records and abilities are clearly off-the-wall impressive, the things we've actually SEEN Shanks do are just a tid bit more noteworthy. We have yet to see Mihawk do anything that Zoro can't do now, or has done already. Not that these things weren't still awe-inspiring, but they lose their shock value when you see someone else do them.

2.) At the beginning of the Summit War, Mihawk sent a slash Whitebeards way purely to "see the difference in strength between us and that man". This implies to me that he doesn't think he could take Whitebeard, while Shanks himself is not lacking for this confidence. A Yonko is Yonko, regardless of your/their age, and whether or not you are one yourself.

3.) Mihawk ceased fighting the instant Shanks showed up. In addition to this, he considered his feelings when fighting Luffy, and hasn't seen Shanks as quite the same ever since he lost his arm. He even came to see him when he learned of his relation to Luffy, and had his guard down the instant he showed up. These 2 are way past fighting each other with any kind of seriousness, and its more a pure friendship now than a friendly rivalry. If they do fight each other, I honestly think both of them are going to hold back.