He's currently weaker than an admiral currently but he may fight and beat one now. They constantly get stronger between main fights and overcome stronger foes on a basis.
If there's anything that Wano showed us, it's that characters are as strong as they need to be, when they need to be.
Hmm, I'm not sure if he's ready for a full one-on-one just yet. I'd say he can give them a good skirmish for a while going by what we've seen. The upper limits of a newfound "birthright" and Ifrit Jambe aren't exactly clear yet. Then again, I'm one of those who believes that the Admirals are comparable to the Yonkou and I don't see Sanji on that level right now.
I can't really say who his next opponent will be. I assume they'll confront Shanks' crew in the next arc (or so), but there really is no telling. Though, I will say, if they go against Shanks' crew, I hope Mihawk is allied with them so Zoro can fight him and Sanji can fight Ben Beckman.
One interesting point is that a lot of the SHP goals seem aligned. Nami creating a world map (since Laugh's Tale is the last island, and a requirement for her goal), Robin knowing the history on the Rio Poneglyph, Luffy wanting to become PK and find OP, Franky wanting a ship to sail around the world, and Brooke wanting to see Laboon again, and Sanji finding All-Blue all seem very close to Luffy's goal of becoming PK and finding OP. I suspect we will see some dreams accomplished before Luffy's. Zoro's is definitely a candidate, since from the start Luffy has said the PK should have the WSS as a companion. So I could definitely see Zoro defeating Hawkeye relatively soonish. The timing is a bit sensitive though, since he (likely) still needs to fight Shiryu in a setting that we can believe will be challenging for him. So part of me wants to see Zoro defeat Hawkeye before the SHP defeat the Blackbeard Pirates, but I could see it going either way.
Re: Sanji fight - I kinda assumed that we'd see a non-traditional set up with the Red Hair Pirates.
I actually could see the following Line Up -
- Luffy vs. Beckman
- Zoro vs. Shanks
- Sanji vs. Lucky Rouxe
I know that sounds weird, but I could imagine a scenario where this is something of a friendly battle between crews, and Zoro may find out that Shanks spars with Mihawk and want to test his strength against a Yonko before going for the WSS.
Lucky Rouxe, IIRC, was known for his speed. Sanji being the fast member of the SHP could potentially find a good match here.
Beckman was a threat to Kizaru and I get the vibe that he's very close to a Yonko in strength based on his standing in the crew (seems like he may have a different relationship to his captain than other Yonko Commanders).
I also just don't see Luffy fighting a swordsman (Shanks).
Who do you think is Sanji's next opponent? Is he ready to face an admiral?
I think he's ready to face an admiral, but it'll be hard to know who he faces next with literally zero information around what the next arc will be. For the past decade we've had a rough idea.. Punk Hazard -> Dressrosa -> WCI -> Wano -> Onigashima..
Now it's just as likely to be Elbaf as a random unknown Island as Marineford. We literally have no idea.
