Hot take: Zoro beats Blackbeard
Ik this sounds crazy and no I’m not a Zoro fan, I’m a big Blackbeard fan. But Blackbeard just doesn’t have many feats that put him in top tier conversations YET. Zoro has Advanced conquerors haki, top tier endurance feats, good speed feats, extremely high AP feats, amazing armament haki and just overall an extremely solid kit. The only category Blackbeard even comes close to Zoro in is AP with the Gura Gura, he has hardly shown any haki, speed, endurance, durability or anything to put him on Zoro’s level. Zoro being fruitless would automatically negate the impact of the Yami, so it’s just the Gura vs Advanced conquerors haki and taking what Kaido said, we know it to be fact that Haki transcends all other forms of power.
Remove narrative from the equation, don’t say “he’s gonna get conquerors” or “he’s an end game villain” with the feats he has right now, give me a good argument as to why he beats Zoro.