User blog comment:Fliu/Chapter 970 Wano Wars: Kozuki, Fallen Clan/@comment-2001:8003:100A:5100:FC14:E0C:3677:6F39-20200203020054/@comment-108.83.222.210-20200204223948

Kaido does admire and acknowledge strength, but at the same time it is questionable whether this is a genuine respect for strength or a respect for the use that the strength can be put to in his service. There are certain people in fiction who only regard others as far as the services that they can provide. If these characters seem upset about the death of their subordinates it is usually because they are upset about the loss of those individuals skillsets. He seemed to be trying to recruit another character for this same reason. It is possible that his subordinates think differently on that regard. Queen stated that he was willing to put forward the idea of sparing Luffy if he agreed to work under Kaido. As for the statement you mentioned, yes fair and unfair seem to be rather relative terms in this anime not just among pirates but to some extent with other people. I cannot tell how the fight would have gone if Oden and Kaido had continued to fight without resorting to this, but I do agree that I rather dislike that this was the reason Oden lost. Funnily enough, if someone had resorted to another tactic such as poisoning Oden then I would have less of an issue with it. This is all just speculation on my part. At the same time, Kaido seemed to have no problem deceiving Oden in order to form his power base for the last several years. So I get the feeling that while he prefers to win using his own strength, he would be willing to resort to less "honorable" methods to win if he deemed it necessary. It might be a blow to his pride, but pride must sometimes be set aside to achieve one's goals.