User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 373: Life or Death?, Review./@comment-24446496-20140228224759/@comment-7418318-20140303092515

Yes Lucy won because they blinded Bickslow, but I think standing on top of a near limitless source of new puppets was the far greater advantage.

If he hadn't been able to replace his babies' bodies three times over, he'd have been beaten much sooner.

And also I didn't see much improvement in Bickslow between the fighting festival and his fights on Tenrou, while Lucy improved quite a bit.

I seriously doubt that the three month of training were worth more than all of Lucy's pre-timeskip growth plus second origin.

And if Loke had known that figure eyes doesn't work on targets that wear glasses, there wouldn't even have been a need for blinding Bickslow.

So yes, it's theoretically possible for Bickslow to be stronger than Lucy now, but looking at all the facts, I'd say it's far more likely that Lucy has pulled even further ahead of him.