Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-28846843-20160625201600/@comment-7292165-20160702023041

And you see the dilemma. It was stated that both prime Hiruzen and Hashirama were the strongest kage ever (nevermind Naruto). However, only Hashirama's abilities were seen at almost close to his full power, while prime Hiruzen's abilities were never shown. The whole reference to Hashirama be the only one to defeat Hashirama is due to him being the only to do so in history so of course they'd say that. Hiruzen could maybe have defeated Madara too in his prime, but what's the point of mentioning that when the Hiruzen was passed his prime anyway, and thus not as powerful as he was then.