User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 447: Escape Battle, Review./@comment-26451407-20150805081453/@comment-5894890-20150805183516

Laxus is strong, no doubt about it. However, I think Gildarts is probably still stronger. Seeing the comments, while I'm pretty sure Gildarts got stronger, his growth is most likely lower than Laxus' growth. Here's a real life example, just look at how it's harder to maintain or gain strength when a human reaches a certain age. So Gildarts is probably near/ at his prime, where, from there on it will be hard to maintain his strength as he gets closer to his senior years.