..no. i said i have mixed feelings about it, meaning its a real possibility that Zoro will kill him, among other scenarios.
The other scenarios dont have to involve Kaidou living tho. If Kaidou really need to be dead, Kaido can die standing in the last round against Luffy, like his body gives out or something.
Even without dying, Oda can give other ways for Kaidou to be hindered. Luffy can permanently damage him, a vegetable that either live or die. One of my favorite headcanon is Luffy pulls out some wild technique that can permanently destroy someone's haki. So like even with Kaidou living, he cant use CoC anymore ever (for example). This revokes him from WSC status and he's not an ultimate threat to Luffy anymore.
Tldr; Kaidou's body finally giving out in the last fight against Luffy, is my main prediction. A glorious death after The Dance of Kings.
My second most likely prediction is ZKK. It's not a version of ZKK you'd like tho since i predict ZKK with Kaidou being unable to recover fully after he is permanently defeated against Luffy.
Not that I think your suggestion is a bad idea, but even without haki, Kaido can and still will be a threat. After all, his physical strength and beam attacks do not depend on his haki.
As for his body giving out, that is indeed a possibility, but not for Kaidou, since WB already had that sort of death. Besides, I don't understand the significance of Kaido dying on his feet while he was pummeled down so many times this arc. At least with WB, the most anyone ever did to him was making him drop to his knees.
Your second prediction is okay with me.
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Luffy will eventually move on to Big Mom because he simply doesnt have what it takes to deal with Kaido.
And vs Big Mom, we will have the return of the Auction House trio.
The only thing left that I wonder about is whether Franky will use something vs Kaido and if it will be effective to any degree.
Considering Franky had memorized the Pluton blueprint, whatever weapon he had should at least inflict a substantial damage to Big Mom, imo.
Unless Oda pulls another Jack with the ancient weapons, that is.