Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-26005711-20150704102606/@comment-26518343-20150708135735

Pre-time skip material implied Hiruzen, the 4th and Orochimaru were pretty much "it" in terms of legends. It wasn't until later on we had the likes of Itachi, Madara, Obitio, Hashirama and Tobirama depicted to be ten times more powerful than those three.

Hiruzen of any age wins against Kakashi. Otherwise why the hell wouldn't he have stepped down and made Kakashi his replacement? Which is something he presumably did for Minato somewhere along the line.