User blog comment:StrawKid/Shanks vs Blackbeard/@comment-3119203-20120128181439/@comment-3425840-20120128191710

There is one little problem n my opinion for which Blackbeard can not defeat Shanks in a fair fight. That is, the struggle he had to go though to take Ace Down. You are right, Ace is a strong pirate, easily Shichibukai level, however, his power was mostly based on his devil fruit. Now, in front of Blackbeard, devil fruit's are duds (its even worse than haki or sea stone) so Ace had fight the entire battle with a handicap, still it was a close fight from the looks of it. So when against Shanks, who is in my guess a non devil fruit based warrior and easily much stronger than Ace even with devil fruit (he is a Yonko + he stood up to Whitebeard and Akainu, both figures who made short work of Ace) Bleackbeard won't have any advantage. Furthermore, if he does not cheat, it won't be suiting for the story too. I mean Shanks is portrayed as the idol for the hero, in his ultimate demise there has to be some handicaps right?