I'm talking specifically about the flame-on mode, considering you need to force him out of that mode to deal with the speed mode.
My original point was that pre-ACoC Luffy and Sanji would likely have trouble forcing him into speed mode if he could just sit there and tank their attacks.
Remember, Kaido's scales were pierced from Zoro's tatsumaki, while King w/ flame on wasn't. That means that King WITH FLAME on is more difficult to penetrate than Kaido.
I think Sanji vs. King would be a good fight, I just can't confidently say that Sanji would win more often than not
well sure King fire-on is beastly but we are talking about peoply who can easily force him of his fire-on mode , it will not help him anyway against those people .
Sanji has top speed and top observation King will have to use his speed mode anyway like he did against Zoro , Zoro wasn't able to do anything against fire-on mode like he stated it himself. and i am pretty sure his fire-on cannot be maintained for ever so would have to finish the fight by using his speed mode.
Sanji doesn't have hard time dodging laser like attacks he demonstrated that against Queen
while Zoro has hard time against King like laser attacks, so basically King will have to use his speed if he wants to land an attack on Sanji anyway.