User blog comment:12th Supernova/Chapter 778: A King's Resolve, A Pirate's Attack/@comment-75.72.183.14-20150226184847/@comment-10543621-20150302041719

Zoro and PIca's fight started much earlier. Initially, Doffy had a bunch of stuff for Pica to do, and those were his main concerns, including lifting up the palace etc. Eventually, we saw that Zoro and Pica were engaged in a fight while everyone else had their business to attend to. We were however not shown their fight in any detail until the recent chapters.

Their actual 'fight' started when Zoro blocked PIca and allowed Rebecca, Robin and others to run past him on their way to Luffy and Law. Since then, Zoro has been engaged with Pica while everything else happened. The only other time we saw any hint of progress of their fight was when Zoro lost his foothold and fell to the lower level where the other colosseum fighters were, and Pica taking control of the entire platform.

After that, we saw more stuff happening around until the latest chapter where Pica decided he had to turn the tides around since executives were falling left and right, and he was the only one left besides those with Doffy, especially after Diamante fell as well. THAT'S when he decided to 'run' away from Zoro had did the cowardly thing of attacking injured people randomly.

Seriously, I saw no indications whatsoever that Pica was never focused on fighting Zoro, and was more interested in running away. They were fighting for a plenty long time. In terms of actual time passed in the manga itself, Zoro and Pica started fighting before Rebbeca even encountered Diamante. Since then, plenty of events occured including Luffy reaching Doffy, conclusion of the majority of colosseum vs executive fights, Usopp's second defeat of Sugar, Dwarves rescuing mansherry, and finally Diamante's defeat. I don't know what Zoro and Pica could be doing in that time if they were not fighting.

What I saw was that Pica indeed gave Zoro a hard time. They fought for a long time. Now, having a hard time is not the same as being pushed to the limits, putting your life on the line or getting terribly injured. In terms of type match-ups, Zoro is a good match for Pica's abilities since he's fast and can cut anything Pica throws at him. But that didn't mean that Zoro wasn't trying hard to end things with Pica, trying to figure out the best way to cut Pica's main body, all while dodging and slicing whatever Pica threw at him in order to survive.

I will agree that it would indeed be very nice for us to see Zoro really exerting himself the way he did previously, where he was putting his life on the line and getting some badass injuries etc. But saying that Pica was a breeze for Zoro isn't being fair to how battles are like in the world of OP where people have all sorts of different abilities suited for different situations. It's true Zoro vs Pica was somewhat 'boring' in the sense that there was no 'real' going at each other kind of fight. But saying that Pica was a complete pushover for Zoro just isn't right. If we're measuring things by how messed up the opponent is, even if Zoro didn't receive any injuries from Pica. neither did Pica up to the point where Zoro finally managed to cut his real body.

For me, I like the fact that we STILL don't have to see Zoro getting messed up over an opponent. As large scale as the events are, this IS still just the second island they've been on in the New World. For me, I actually like the idea that they're facing a variety of characters who can put up a fight, but isn't nearly overwhelming them. In the grand scheme of things, the reason why Luffy requested a 2 year gap for their reunion to train before entering the New World was precisely because he realised that they were not strong enough. Sure they'll be able to survive, but prior to the timeskip, they've faced way too many close shaves and everyone has had their share of being close to death. Witnessing the events of Marineford reinforced that and Luffy knew they had to get stronger.

That's why to me, I prefer watching them face obstacles, but at the same time also appreciate that these obstacles are NOT as life-threatening YET. I will definitely look forward to a fight where all the members are pushed right to their limits like CP9, but I'm prefectly happy with the progress now.