Why do we have to fuse the Two Informations?
Who said that Mihawk wasn't already WGS & joined Warlords before He fought Shanks?
Shanks failing to Defeat Mihawk simply means that He gets to keep his Title,
Crocodile was already a Warlord like around 20 Years ago,
You think Mihawk wasn't Invited at the time? He wasn't already WGS?
According to WB, everyone was Shocked when Shanks came back without an Arm, as He was already considered Extremely Powerful back then, way before He joined Yonko, so what was his Biggest Feat back then? WB told us that He couldn't forget Shanks Duel with Mihawk, meaning it was what made People recognize Shanks Power,
All of this suggest that Mihawk was already a huge deal when Shanks fought him,
It doesn't make sense that Mihawk became WGS after Fighting Shanks, if Shanks also received his Fame at the time from such Duel,
It's like meeting Young Shanks & Mihawk & saying:
"Oh it's Shanks, the Guy who Matched Mihawk" & then you ask, but who is Mihawk? "Oh it's the Guy who became WGS after Fighting Shanks",
Can't work like that,
Imo it makes more sense that Mihawk was already WGS & joined Warlords when He Fought Shanks,
After that, their Duel was Biggest Talk of the World, because not only Shanks proved himself able to Rival WGS, but the Fight itself discouraged everyone from questioning Mihawk's Title, because if Shanks couldn't, then who can?
Also when talking about the Champion, you mention the Strongest Person who failed to take the Title from him, not who He had to beat to achieve it, just like when talking about One Piece, no one talks about who Roger had to beat, They instead talk about those who still couldn't find it (Yonko), hence why Brannew mentioned Shanks name when Hyping Mihawk,