Oda strongly hinted that Zoro and Sanji are close to each other in strength!

1 The beginning of the rivalry: “Little Garden: Dorry and Broggy”

In the Little Garden arc, Zoro and Sanji’s rivalry begins when they bicker about who is better at dinosaur hunting. They hold a contest to see who can hunt the bigger dinosaur. It’s pretty fun stuff.

But what do you know? We later come to know that two giants named Dorry and Broggy have been fighting on this island for 100 years, with neither of them being able to kill the other and having had an equal number of wins.

It is initially said that they forgot the reason why they were fighting in the first place, but it is later revealed that…

This whole fight was over who hunted the bigger fish. This is clearly a parallel.

In the same way that two warriors have equal, endless fights over a hunting contest, two people start a rivalry over a hunting contest.

So it is clear to me that Oda is drawing a parallel between Dorry and Broggy and Zoro and Sanji and is trying to convey to us that if Zoro and Sanji were to fight, it would be like Dorry and Broggy.

2 Oda refuses to answer

A fan asked a question in an SBS. And Oda not only avoided the question, he had a classic Oda answer.

D: If Zoro and Sanji had a serious fight, who would win? Zoro beat Mr. 1, so he’s stronger, right?

O: Whoa! That was surprising… I thought you said, “If Zoro and Sanji had a dick fight”… You have to be careful what you say. Someone might hear something totally wrong… Okay, see you next time!

Huh? Why would Oda avoid something so straightforward? Unless he doesn’t want to be straightforward, He straight up avoided answering a Zoro vs. Sanji question… Make your own conclusions.

3. Doriki

I know Doriki is not exactly a reliable method of scaling. But let’s step away from in-universe explanations, take a step back, and jump into Oda’s mind.

Why would the Dorikis of Zoro and Sanji’s opponents be so close to each other? Oda could have easily made Kaku’s be 2500 and Jabra’s be 1900. You know, create a good gap between those two while also maintaining a big gap between the rest of CP9. But no. He almost made them dead equal.

Why? Make your own conclusions.

To me, this is how Oda sees Zoro and Sanji. Zoro being stronger, but ever so slightly. just like the Dorikis of Kaku and Jabra. And just like the bounties of…

4. The King and Queen

Yep. Here we are. Just like with the Doriki system, Oda could have made the king’s and queen’s bounties super different. But he chose to make them super close to each other. The King’s bounty is $1.39 billion, while the Queen’s is $1.32 billion. a measly 70 million Berry Bounty dollars.

Now, I know bounty tools are not accurate scaling tools, but I speak solely about portrayal at this time. Zoro and Sanji beat two people who have a very low difference in bounty, just like they beat someone with a very low difference in doriki.

5 The height differences of rivals

So Oda does this where rivals have a very low difference in height, of just 1 cm.

This provides further credence to my points.

Other points which I think are worth talking about, but which are in no way strong points, so take them with a bigger pinch of salt:

Zoro and Sanji took out Pacifistas together, while Luffy got one on his own.

Wings of the Pirate King

Both of them were the ones to make Oars fall in Thriller Bark by making him lose his footing.

– Fighting opponents who bicker (Daz Bones/Bon Chan, Kaku/Jabra, King/Queen).

– Constantly portrayed as a duo.