User blog comment:Chopper4PirateKing/Who would win in fight?? Sanji or Lucci?/@comment-3242083-20110819122906

Lucci would still trash him after the timeskip. The gap between him and Jabra was massive, and then we don't even factor the Neko Neko no Mi into that (which is undoubtedly the more powerful or trained Zoan).

My impression is that Lucci could be easily on a Shichibukai level, considering only his power and Kuma's reaction about him being defeated.

That said, Sanji isn't on a Shichi level yet, same with Zoro. Yes, they both trained under powerful figures, but that doesn't mean they suddenly absorbed all their strength.

Then there is the argument that villains don't train anymore and stay at their level. Smoker is not a real villain, but he demonstrated that even the bigshots keep improving. Lucci believes that weakness is a sin, and he lost to Luffy. I'm quite confident that his defeat gave him a real reason to train and improve his already insane abilities.

Final reason why Sanji is, imho, still inferior: Luffy is a rubberman. Apart from a Logia, he is the natural enemy of every martial artist (not counting fishman karate here). Still Lucci managed to severely wound him through sheer force, what do you think will his attacks do to a normal body?