Nope, he was sure. He just wanted to see how much stronger WB was. Then Jozu showed up and stopped his test, making it very clear that he was a long way from the top.
then admirals are also a very long way from the top
How does it make it clear that he's a "long way" from the top!? He can't be that far away being the most renowned swordfighter of the world and earlier rival to Shanks who was similarly strong as Whitebeard. Just wanted to point out that your shouldn't use such exaggeration, when it's obvious that the statement is completely wrong when you think it through for ten seconds.
Is there a definite proof that Mihawk is the most powerful swordsman or are you basing it on what the characters themselves said? Even though Shanks isn't the best swordsman it doesn't mean he'll lose if both go all out if he has other skills.
He can beat shanks, simply because shanks isnt the strongest swordsman in the world, unlike mihawk.
Not something I'd necessarily disagree with.
Simply being Shanks earlier rival doesn't mean that he was close to Whitebeard in ability or power. WB showed that he was superior to everyone involved, most by a sizeable margin, at that point, including Akainu. If it weren't for Squardo's betrayal, WB would have been even more primed for action.
alright, but regardless if old info or not, its still legit.
That's not at all what I was pointing out with my post, don't move the goal post please. It's about your "long way" comment, you may try defend it again with a reasonable explanation.
I was defending that, which is why I said 'sizeable margin'. I elucidated on why I thought so. The goalposts aren't moved, WB is far more powerful than Mihawk, by both reputation and feats. Your justification that he was somewhere in the ballpark is purely that he was once rival to Shanks. There isn't anything to suggest that Mihawk was operating on the same level as WB, in fact, there's more to support that he was a considerable distance from WB in terms of strength and power.
Yonkou are captains with crews equal in strength to admirals, they have a way of crontrolling big territories with subordinates and subservant countries/pirate crews, a lone pirate like Mihawk does not.
Just pointed out the aimless argument, which had little to do with individual power.
lol I know what the Yonkou are.
Can you please provide proof? Because that logic is very faulty. If you're talking about pure swordsman fighting, you could be right. However, if it's fighting overall, Shanks seems to have the edge here since he can fight in different ways. It's similar to how Sanji despite using legs to fight can use knives and his hands to fight when needed, so even if he and someone else were even in leg karate, Sanji can have the edge and win because he's more versatile.
That is a reference to his reputation. His feats would be composed of everything that happened during the war, even after being betrayed by Squardo.
Above.
Shanks relationship with Mihawk is what it is, I don't see that as much of an indicator. Mihawk left the war unscathed because he didn't get involved with any of the monsters around for any considerable amount of time, Vista and later Croc are the only two people of note that he engaged, and the battle against Croc isn't shown. Mihawk's attack against Jozu and his duel with Vista that stood as a draw before being interrupted are far better indicator of his abilities, mainly because his abilities are shown; quite frankly they are the only time we've seen his abilities on display against individuals of notable power and ability. If his ability is somewhat comparable to Vista's, or marginally superior, I don't think it's a stretch to say he's a ways away from WB, very few would likely object if I laid the claim that Vista was a long way from WB in power. Being Zoro's final goal doesn't mean he was near to WB in power, and Zoro's goal is to defeat him, be better than he is. I'm not sure what the reference to Silver was about.
And these arguments and their relevance to his ability compared to WB's during the war are?
I wouldn't be able to give many specifics on how Shanks compares to WB, although I believe him to be inferior, by how much, I don't know. And I also don't know precise difference in ability between Shanks and Mihawk. What the manga did provide was a clear comparison of Mihawk's ability to a WB commander, or two of them in particular, through different means. And those are the only clear comparisons in ability that we've seen.