I mean I don't think Zoro negged Lucci and he had to try but he clearly could have ended the fight way sooner based on this chapter. Best you can bargain with here is the lower end of mid diff, and that's only because of the lenght cause Lucci got brutally outskilled here.
If zoro was as serious as he is now yeah he’d definitely do a lot better from the start. He still needing something to push him to that point
Zoro was obviously trying to beat Lucci before but again he just needed an extra push to do better. Same situation when he was fighting apoo and saw kiku’s arm
Both things being necessary to push zoro to that point
Like the story isn’t some battle dome forum where everyone is competing serious, blood lusted, and going all out from the start of every fight
Like even fodder can get the jump on top tiers depending on who and the situation. Like Morgan’s cut Garp lol