Mortein

Primebeard wins with relatively high difficulty.

PK level>>>Prime Rayleigh>>>Old and inactive Rayleigh~Admirals

I can't find any super old posts for this prediction, so I'll just write it down again.

There are 3 reasons why I think there will be at least 1 sword user stronger than Mihawk during the final war.

1. I don't see Mihawk fighting on the side of the evil Gorosei and Im-sama during the the final war, and if he's not fighting on the side of Im, Zoro will have to surpass him before the final war.

2. The promises Luffy and Zoro made to each other makes it obvious that they are set to fulfill their dreams around the same time in the story. Zoro said he'll become the world's strongest swordsman, Luffy replied that since he'll be the Pirate King, anything less will make him look bad. This means that by the time Luffy becomes the PK, Zoro will also be the WSS.

But Whitebeard told us in his final speech that the final war starts after the OP is found, meaning Zoro will already be stronger than Mihawk before the war even starts. The last arc is bound to have the greatest power ups in the series and the toughest fights, and obviously Zoro who already surpassed Mihawk will have to fight someone during the last arc, and that someone will have to be stronger than Mihawk if he's to give Zoro a hard fight during the last arc.

3. Zoro promised Luffy to become the strongest swordsman in the world, but he promised Kuina to become the strongest swordsman ever. How can we know if he's stronger than other WSS's know to history, like Ryuma? The only solution I can see is if the immortal character like Nusjuro used to be a rival to Ryuma, so by defeating him, Zoro will also surpass Ryuma.

This is also convenient since Nusjuro is not considered to be a man, so the Strongest SwordsMAN title wouldn't technically apply to him.

Gallery

One more possibility would be that Nusjuro was already super old and way out of his prime when he became immortal, making him stuck in a weakened body.

If there's a way to rejuvenate him, we would get the stronger than Mihawk opponent for Zoro during the final war, while Mihawk's current WSS title would still be accurate.

I still don't see the clear path as to how he might get rejuvenated, perhaps it will somehow involve Bonney and her powers.

My prediction is that Nusjuro will be stronger than Mihawk during the final war.

But BB probably does have some hidden power, or he will get some kind of a power up in the future.

@ragegod: I am

Zoro wins, slightly harder than it was against Lucci

Kizaru is the only one fast enough to evade Luffy for long enough for him to reach his time limit.

Akainu is the slowest, but he would do some serious damage to Luffy before going down.

At the beginning of the arc Aokiji with extreme diff, right now team with extreme diff.

I guess he would do to Kaido something similar to what he did to Nusjuro.

I don't think even Zoro could defeat Law at this point.

@mortein said:

There are 3 reasons why I think there has to be at least 1 sword user stronger than Mihawk

1. I don't see Mihawk fighting on the side of the evil Gorosei and Im-sama during the the final war, and if he's not fighting on the side of Im, Zoro will have to surpass him before the final war.

2. The promises Luffy and Zoro made to each other makes it obvious that they are set to fulfill their dreams around the same time in the story. Zoro said he'll become the world's strongest swordsman, Luffy replied that since he'll be the Pirate King, anything less will make him look bad. This means that by the time Luffy becomes the PK, Zoro will also be the WSS.

But Whitebeard told us in his final speech that the final war starts after the OP is found, meaning Zoro will already be stronger than Mihawk before the war even starts. The last arc is bound to have the greatest power ups in the series and the toughest fights, and obviously Zoro who already surpassed Mihawk will have to fight someone during the last arc, and that someone will have to be stronger than Mihawk if he's to give Zoro a hard fight during the last arc.

3. Zoro promised Luffy to become the strongest swordsman in the world, but he promised Kuina to become the strongest swordsman ever. How can we know if he's stronger than other WSS's know to history, like Ryuma? The only solution I can see is if the immortal character like Nusjuro used to be a rival to Ryuma, so by defeating him, Zoro will also surpass Ryuma.

This is also convenient since Nusjuro is not considered to be a man, so the Strongest SwordsMAN title wouldn't technically apply to him.

Gallery

Not something I would expect to see if I'm correct about Nusjuro being an opponent for Zoro during the final war.

I don't this this disproves the theory, but it's certainly a piece of evidence which goes against it.

One more possibility would be that Nusjuro was already super old and out of his prime when he became immortal, making him stuck in a weakened body.

If there's a way to have him rejuvenated, we would get the stronger than Mihawk opponent for Zoro during the final war, while Mihawk's WSS title would still be accurate.