Rob Lucci runs a One Piece Gauntlet

[Great Potato]

Unfortunately, there's really no consistency in Kaido's fight with Luffy. Kaido sat around getting staggered and acting pained from base Luffy's no-named punches, but then went on to take some of G4's strongest attacks like they were tickling him.

Red Roc leaves Kaido on the ground shook at the start of the fight, yet a heavily fatigued Kaido eats an aCoC Overkong Gun and bounces back instantly with a smile on his face. Kaido eats a Kong Gatling from Luffy and is napping on the floor for a few pages while Big Mom looks on in horror, yet an aCoC snakeman volley gets walked through with a flirtly face. Kaido dodges a Red Hawk because he's scared of the damage it could do, but then goes on to tank an aCoC G5 volley and remain on his feet.

Oda dropped the ball on how he handled the power-progression of that fight compared to the bout with Lucci at EL where there was a very stark difference in performance and how the two compared with each gear.

 

[B Rabbit]

I don't think it was inconsistent. I think it was just Kaidou getting more and more excited through the course of the fight meant he wanted to take more and more powerful blows.

Plus the Red Roc was something Kaidou wasn't expecting, but it didn't seem like he was really affected by it,

 

[OtherGalaxy]

yeah I chalk it up to Kaido not giving much of a shit at first, he basically said only once he got drunk that he’d acknowledged Luffy’s strength and Luffy states his haki had gotten stronger at that point. He willingly chose not to use futuresight prior despite being able to the whole time.

 

[Great Potato]

I don't think it was inconsistent. I think it was just Kaidou getting more and more excited through the course of the fight meant he wanted to take more and more powerful blows.

Plus the Red Roc was something Kaidou wasn't expecting, but it didn't seem like he was really affected by it,

It just feels difficult for me to get a frame of reference for Luffy and his attacks if we're just meant to assume Kaido was sandbagging through the early phases. aCoC is supposed to be seen as an amazing power-up for the very best, yet Oda failed to convey that for me when none of the attacks Luffy was landing seemed out of the realm of what he was dishing out before, and many of them got less of a reaction out of Kaido than before he unlocked the power-up.

Also how the various gears failed to shake up the power dynamic in a real meaningful way. Base Luffy fights Kaido for a dozen or so chapters on relatively even footing. He goes G4 and continues fighting Kaido on relatively even footing. He then awakens the legendary G5 and the fight continues to be a fairly even back and forth. Gear 5 did the most, but relative to Kaido they didn't really do enough to fully differentiate the dynamic between them, and it has led to base Luffy getting overrated because Oda didn't do a solid job conveying the differences between forms.

Looking at Luffy vs Lucci in EL
-Base Luffy was on par with base Lucci going blow for blow, but failed to deal any noteworthy damage and struggled to keep up with his zoan form
-Gear 2nd Luffy flips the script, he is now visibly much faster and stronger than Lucci and his blows are now having heavy impacts that are wearing him down. Lucci isn't able to keep up until the stamina drawbacks kick in and start providing diminishing returns.
-Gear 3rd delivers absolute devastation and it's clear Lucci wouldn't stand up to another hit, but he gains back the speed advantage and can outmaneuver the form.

In this fight it's made abundantly clear where Lucci stands relative to each gear in terms of strengths and the advantages/disadvantages he has over each. Kaido fight felt far more stagnant in terms of progression despite juggling far more power-ups and forms, and I find it difficult to scale from that when base Luffy dances on a Thunder Bagua while G4 and G5 can't seem to avoid an attack to save their lives; or when an aCoC Overkong Gun gets shrugged off like nothing after dozens of chapters of Kaido reacting like a drama queen from what should be massively weaker attacks.

 

[Solar Sailor]

The Kaido fights are hard to gauge because Kaido is kinda like a Damage Sponge that prefers to soak in punches. He’s a walking tank.

As far as I’m concerned Luffy’s advanced CoA was enough to hurt Kaido, but beyond that it wasn’t really enough, even with Gear 4

Luffy with advCoC was able to do alot better than pre-AdvCoC Gear 4, to the point that he had a Yonkou Clash.

but his problem, which Kaido pointed out, was his inexperience and how hard it is for him to keep it up for long. The reason why AdvCoC and G4 didn’t seem to be budging Kaido that much was because Kaido had some monstrous stamina and experience to keep going. At least that’s my interpretation. Also his Drunken States vary in strength and at the end he was wearing G4 Luffy with AdvCoC down too much.

G5 Luffy is stronger, but he’s also reckless and leaves himself open alot.

 

[Claudio Swiss]

I think people at this point need to understand that this isn’t Dragon Ball.

Nah homie every series follows that db logic

 

[Solar Sailor]

Nah homie every series follows that db logic

Kaido getting punched around by Pre-Ryuo Luffy in Dragon Form?

the Akazuya 9 managing to draw blood from Kaido?

Jimbei and Robin managing to toss Big Mom?

Luffy in LRLL managing to push around Aokiji?

it’s very clear that weaker characters can still put up SOME sort of fight, even when they’re obviously outclassed

 

[Claudio Swiss]

Kaido getting punched around by Pre-Ryuo Luffy in Dragon Form?

the Akazuya 9 managing to draw blood from Kaido?

Jimbei and Robin managing to toss Big Mom?

Luffy in LRLL managing to push around Aokiji?

it’s very clear that weaker characters can still put up SOME sort of fight, even when they’re obviously outclassed

I'm joking