User blog comment:Yatanogarasu/Gecko Moria: Weakest of the Eight?/@comment-173.35.249.161-20100706165439

"Crocodile, who had a much lower bounty, managed to nearly kill Luffy three times before Luffy managed to take advantage of Crocodile's underestimation to win." Keep in mind that was 300+ chapters ago, and at that time Luffy had a bounty ten times less than his current one. So Luffy and Crocodile are probably closer in strength now than in Alabasta.