I disagree with this.
Zoro can already be stronger than shiryu but he will still struggle against Shiryu, because Shiryu is willing to do whatever necessary to win the fight be it taking a hostage or sneak attacks. This will definitely make it so the fight is hard for Zoro because he doest fight with the same cunning mentality, but it doesn't mean that Shiryu is impressive. It means that if shiryu fights someone with the same cunning mentality as him, he would get bodied instantly. Also another thing, sanji only detected absalom by thowing salt around him.
Struggling with Shiryu =/= getting his ass whooped. When I quoted
@Gol D. Roger this was the premise. We're at a point of the story where Zoro is not only insanely powerful but incredibly balanced.
You don't whoop someone's ass on that level with a gimmick alone. If Zoro only struggles and even more so because of some underhanded stuff, then it's a different conversation.
The best way for him to grow stronger, is by fighting extremely strong top tiers. Luffy did the same so why can't i expect the same for Zoro?
Do we really want Zoro's battles to have as many asspulls as Luffy's, even the convenient advCoC awakening and retarded unexplained King flame on/off gimmick was bad enough.
Though I do agree it would need to happen sooner than later. I just can't visualize how Shiryu vs Zoro, and BB vs Luffy can lineup if BB is supposed to be this >> Prime WB level threat.
Let the same fight play out for a bit longer and Zoro would win, even without CoC.
Maybe, but my point was there's no way any reasonable person would say Zoro was an entire level above King. They're comparable as a whole pre KoH.