User blog comment:Thecarnagekidd6/Dr.Kureha/@comment-4132693-20110815223241

Luffy has gained the power to fight the admirals, i think what they have on their side is the experience which they have gained from fighting battles and learning, if not, a complete control of their haki. Luffy got the 3 types of haki, his DF and also his physical strength. What he needs is the experience to help him keep growing stronger. Like he told Lucci (if i remember correctly) during their fight, that thanks to the CP9 involvement he learned that he needed to get stronger, hence his gears fighting skill. So luffy IMO is close in strength but needs more experience to gain complete mastery.