@Impel:
Explain sentence two for me, because Moria did not show up before Doflamnigo and Kuma unless you count the silhouettes of all the Shichibukai, which I certainly wouldn't since none of them even resemble their silhouettes.
I meant that Kuma and Flamingo had been shown. We were talking about them. We had (maybe?) hints towards their power and we had seen something about their character (certainly Flamingo more than Kuma)
So if we had to have a SBK fight, it could have been either 2 (or Mihawk) or hell even Jimbei (we know his name at least, and the fact that he is probably a fishman)
We knew nothing about Moria. We didn't know his name, his power, his location, anything. Similar to the situation with the 7th SBK fight now. So instead of giving the StrawHats a fight with a named/hinted at character, Oda threw us Moria. Completely from left field. And I LOVED IT. I like that we got a fun character, with really interesting powers and a great arc, while all the other characters were still sitting in the dugout
And I'm hoping that this is what will happen with the Admirals as well