Fair enough, in the manga he doesn’t seem bothered too much by extending his arm beyond the bubble but again, DF users do lose strength from being underwater so just by going by the rules of the verse, it’s unfair to say it was a full power red hawk.
You only asked me to prove Zoro’s physical strength being superior to Hordy’s without swords, I raised you the gravity example to prove his physical strength so unless you think Hordy can do the same or better, that should prove Zoro’s physical strength is greater than hordy’s. It is a purely a strength feat, the swords are irrelevant in that example. As far as battles go without Zoro using his swords, there really aren’t any outside of the Davy back fight but Zoro definitely has physical strength in spades, enough to overcome the likes of hordy at the very least.