Vergo is stoic so he doesn't show his pain but he did get send flying all bloodied by a DJ attack in a clash against Sanji. And Smoker was shown to get the better of Vergo in CQC in some scenes despite not fighting like his usual self to get Law heart back.
I def agree that Vergo is more impressive than your vet but he's far from the god of high tiers, even in close combat.
Stoic would be one thing, but Sanji actually specifically pointed out his durability right after cheapshotting him in the face with DJ. Just for reference when
base Sanji cheapshotted Oven, a vet who was called the toughest of the entire BMP including the commanders, Oven was almost seeing the pearly gates.
I don't think people still to this day understand Vergo. Sanji was outdoing Vergo completely in their exchange, infact Vergo didn't land a single attack on Sanji. Yet after their exchange it was Sanji questioning if he could even continue fighting, while Vergo forgot Sanji ever existed.
Same shit happened with Smoker, Smoker was tossing Vergo around outdoing him in CQC but Vergo just wasn't slowing down, while Smoker was wearing himself down to the point where he realized the fight was going to be a loss for him, had to completely shift tactics when he realized he wasn't going to win despite completely outlanding against him.
Pretty sure Vergo is supposed to be based off the terminator. That's what Oda was going with. This is also why Oda had Vergo fall to hax instead of a physical limit.