I don’t know. What I do know is that, even with the overwhelming numerical advantage on his side, out at sea, and with a larger fleet, Roger — against all those odds — ended up driving a helm into the skull of the man who was supposedly his equal. And that guy walked out of that battle with the helm stuck in his head. Buggy, who witnessed the entire fight and much later as an older man, said that Whitebeard was the only person capable of rivaling Roger, even though Shiki actually has a recorded instance of fighting him.
After that, the narrator confirms it in Marineford. And finally, the crazy Golden Lion, still with the helm stuck in his skull thanks to Roger, goes to Marineford to shout and kiss up to Roger in front of all the Marines — and ends up defeated.
I get Shiki. If I ended up with a helm stuck in my skull after fighting someone, I’d probably kiss up to that person too, because it would actually make me feel better.



Which part of “they didn’t stop fighting evenly” did you not understand? Like I said, the guy came out almost dead after fighting Garp, and after three days he stopped fighting Whitebeard because they weren’t getting anywhere — both were evenly matched.
Against Shiki, the storm took all of that away from him, which is why Shiki can’t be considered Roger’s equal, man. The storm didn’t allow him to earn either of the two portrayals — in fact, not even the third one, because he could’ve ended up with the “loser” portrayal as well.