One of the most important thing that a lot of people fail to do when it comes to power scaling several One Piece character is fail to look at things such as titles, hype statements, rumors with a certain level of Nuance.
The most obvious example of it is Katakuri who although not many people seem to use the hype he received from his siblings as an argument for his superiority over other first commanders of emperors, I have seem some people like
@Admiral Lee Hung use that as a legitimate argument. But perception vs reality is even much more so than Kaido, is evident with Katakuri
Perception of Katakuri's siblings of Katakuri vs Reality of Katakuri
Perception vs Reality was very much evident in whole cake Island with Katakuri's siblings buying the false perception that Katakuri has created with his made up perfectionism and a victory record that is supposed to be legendary rest of the world doesn't care about. A record so irrelevant to the unbiased people of the world that they don't recognize him as king of 1v1 fights, instead they recognize Kaido as one. So much so that Big News Morgan didn't even mention Katakuri's undefeated record while giving Luffy his 1.5 Billion belly bounty, I mean he didn't even specifically name drop Katakuri, instead he was just one of the two sweet commanders that Luffy defeated. Obviously if Big News Morgans bought false perception of Katakuri that his siblings did, his defeat would be one of the main focuses of his new article.
So the false perception isn't necessarily that the record exist, instead the weight that the record holds and the legend of it. While his siblings that buy the false perception that Katakuri has created would consider the record the greatest thing that has ever exist, to the rest of the unbiased world, the record doesn't mean much. Even to someone who was trying to glorify straw hat Luffy's accomplishment and make him look as great as he possible can to annoy Big Mom, the worth of Katakuri's title wasn't enough to give him a name drop in the article.
Another important thing to consider is that it is very hard to believe he has faced likes of King and Marco when Oda made a big deal of the fact that he hit his back to the floor for the very first time when he faced Luffy. I am not willing to take a leap of faith that Katakuri has defeated likes of Marco, Katakuri or even Vista in a low difficulty effort without his back touching the floor even once. So it was just an empty hype statement from people who admire him. Maybe he has undefeated record but undefeated record hardly means anything when you have only faced scrubs. Zoro was also an undefeated and
invincible swordsman in East Blue until Mihawk had to show him that he is nothing more than a mere big fish in a tiny sea or rather big frog in a tiny well.
It is one of the most integral nuance of Katakuri's character that he has created false perception of perfectionism around him that only his siblings believe in. It is very important because one of the most important developments Katakuri received during his fight with Luffy was him attempting to escape that perception and express his true self freely after he took off that mask.
The World's Perception of Kaido vs Reality of Kaido
Another example of it is Kaido and all the hype surrounding him. I have seen many people find weird ways to try to dismiss Kaido's hype and all the statements narrator of the story made regarding him during his introduction. I have heard people say things like "Well his title doesn't apply to human beings as humans are not Creatures" which again the idea of humans not being creatures depending on your definition of creature maybe true, the Japanese word
Seibutsu directly translates to "
Living Organism" which certainly includes all the humans. Another even more ridiculous argument that I have heard is that "Kaido is only physically strongest and not necessarily strongest overall fighter" which is weird because narrator simply said "In 1v1 battle, always bet on Kaido" before giving him that distinction of strongest creature in the world.
But one logical argument that I hardly hear is regarding the perception of him vs reality.
The perception to the world is that Kaido has won his battle with Kozuki Oden, reality is that he won due to taking unfair advantage. He defeated Oden by having an old lady transform into Momonuske, Oden's son which was enough for Oden to loose his focus and look away from Kaido momentarily and Kaido took advantage of that and smacked Oden on the head with his club and incapacitated him
Although the readers saw Kaido defeat him through underhanded tactics, the history would say Oden lost his battle to Kaido. Its very possible that people of Wano neglected the fact that Kaido won his battle due to underhanded tactic of "using a hostage" to his advantage. I don't know if the rest of the world is aware of Kozuki Oden's defeat to Kaido, although its very possible because it is implied Oden had a bounty and it was likely a very high bounty. But that is not necessarily very important to the topic at hand, instead it gives room to an interesting idea. Perhaps Kaido has won majority of his fights through cheating, dirty tactics, hostages etc but world just looked at his victory record and ran with the idea that Kaido is invincible in 1v1 battle.
I think it is by design as I don't think it is a very smart move from an author's perspective to have someone who represents peak of strength in One Piece show his full power in the middle of the story and then get defeated. It also clashes with Whitebeard and his reputation as the King of his era after Gol D Roger's death all the while Kaido has his title. I mean technically Kaido could have been stronger than Whitebeard this entire time but the lore of One Piece favors Whitebeard over Kaido.
World's Perception of Mihawk vs Reality of Mihawk
Now Mihawk seems to be the kind of guy unlike Kaido where the perception might actually be reality just because of the way Mihawk has been presented in the story, his inner conflict, his personality and his role in the story.
Mihawk has not been presented as the the kind of a guy to cheat or take short cuts of any kind instead he has been presented as polar opposite of that to the point where he wouldn't even face a man who is at a disadvantage due to loss of an arm. His approach to Shanks is that he knows Shanks is simply not strong enough to give him a competitive fight due to having only one arm and if the fight happened he would simply win each time. He can take an unfair victory over Shanks due to Shanks being at a disadvantage but that goes directly against his personality of being against taking unfair advantage because he failed to defeat Shanks at the peak of his power when he had both his arms. Its antithesis of how Kaido views his battles where he has no qualms of taking unfair advantage in the midst of battle and smacking someone in the head from behind.
It is even more evident when he didn't show much interest in Vista and "postponing" their duel simply to never try to find him again. In a sense he treated Vista same way he treated Don Krieg because he is aware Vista isn't someone who can give him a proper fight.
It is important as Mihawk is so desperate to get thrill of battle that he would go to ends of hell to find Vista and finish his fight with him if he truly viewed him as someone who can give him a competitive fight. It is same man who traveled from Grand Line to East Blue on a coffin boat just because one ship slipped by him after he cut down 49 ships.
Obviously Mihawk's title is also perception based, the world perceives Mihawk as the strongest swordsman in the world because of feats that Mihawk has pulled, because of people that Mihawk has defeated. Obviously its not a judges contested title where a few strong swordsman might not have recognized. Its simple just like Kaido, world is recognizing Mihawk as the strongest in the world, be it through his big swordsmanship feats, his duel with Shanks or simply the undefeated victory record he has.
The difference with him and Kaido is that he isn't using underhanded tactics to win his battles as that is simply not his personality. He is more than happy to find somebody who is strong enough to defeat him and take his title from him, as a matter of fact he is desperately looking for someone to defeat him.
Another point that Mihawk has going for him is that he has been shown to be end of be all when it comes to swordsmanship due to the black blade he has, him being the ultimate destination of only main character whose character arc revolves around swordsmanship and become stronger in the way of swordsmanship.
Maybe it is the reason why Oda chose to gave Mihwak and Whitebeard introduction boxes with "World's Strongest" in it while with Kaido he simply called it a rumor.
Anyways in conclusion perception and reality can be the same like in case of Mihawk and can be different like in the case of Katakuri. With Kaido its up in the air because we don't know the path he took after his fight with Kozuki Oden.
