i hella agree with Dannynonsense

even tho shinn knows kira will not aim for the cockpit and only disarms him, that does mean kira couldn't beat shinn with strike with the same handicap, remember in the shinn and kira battle, shinn had varities of weapons to work with while kira only had a sword and gun. if u watch Strike fighting in GS u also will know wut im talking about, Strike can use knifes, the big sword, light saber and even sheild and alot more... i seen in GS kira actually uses the mobile, to take the hit, then pull off the knifes, he could even throw his shield(as u seen in the sand battle),also recharge... use alot of battle tatics(that gave me goosebumps). the ones shinn used against kira, kira can also use it against shinn with better skills. face it.. Strike is a hella better hand to hand combat mobile than freedom. and how could u say athrun beat kira...that battle kira won to me, he slice off most of athrun mobile while strike only had a few parts off and plus, not like kira died, both mobile got destroyed too. the only part is that athrun was alittle ahead because he went suicide. and pop up his seat so he was less injured. and the part Gil said he took down the best mobile at the time (Strike)....my theory is that Gil didn't know Strike and Freedom are the same drivers since both strike and athrun's mobile got blown up.......