Yeah it seems to be. Oda feels very strongly about Sanji not hitting women as he has mentioned in the past as far as I remember, so it would a massive betrayal of his own writing and beliefs for Sanji if it's true.
It's even worse with Sanji as he doesn't use his hands but only his feet and thus he hits like an absolute truck ofc. So if he hit a woman, especially one who is more a civilian and not combat experienced, it could even be fatal or at least major/severe damage to her potentially. Another reason why I really hate the possibility of him hitting a woman. Seeing Cosette all beaten up by the Vinsmokes was bad enough too.
Given how Sanji is influenced by his emotions, how hot headed he is and his flames are fuelled by his emotions, his anger especially ofc, Queen attacking this geisha at least once if not twice now, is gonna serve as pure fuel for Sanji to get really mad and angrier. We saw throwback recently of how Sanji went berserk at Fishman Island vs Wadatsumi and showed Hell's Memories for the first time BUT also back in Thriller Back, when he showed an early form/tease/foreshadowing of HM when he caught fire and was going "Super Saiyan" over hearing what Absalom had just done to Nami too.
Although given what Catarina Devon is like anyway, I really wish Sanji would fight her and avenge all the women she's beheaded, to finally allow himself to fight a woman and hit her when that woman is completely evil/inhumane/irredeemable etc. Its guaranteed that Devon will hunt Nami out of her jealousy for her beauty and also most likely Robin too ofc.
But now I think about it, if Yamato does join the SHs, that gives Yamato the PERFECT opponent in the Blackbeard pirates! Yamato and Devon both have mythical zoans based on famous Japanese mythical deities and both are classed as mythical dogs types in the OP world too! Devon would naturally target Yamato too due to Yamato's beautiful feminine appearance*.
*(trying to dodge a certain endless argument about Yamato here
)