Gorthaur,
You bring up some good points! I think that you have a strong argument if you consider 1st generation dragons only. And if the consideration were of the Balrogs as the kind originally drafted (see above - balrog vs Balrog). In my first post I had the "2nd draft" Balrog in mind. Mabye 4-6 in total. Original Maia's who were spirits of flame.
I would like to see some canon as to the original dragons were actually "hand reared" by Morgoth as he did for Carcharoth, or were they
(A) trapped spirits inhabiting an already existing species of flying lizard
,
(B) or, what i think is: The already existing flying lizard species (mabye some already advanced to the point of speach and cunning minds) were taken and corrupted by M, to the point - like orcs - where each subsequent generation is as evil as the prior.
SPM has great points too so lets just break down the attributes of each like has done before. The battle Gorthaur references could be viewed, as set in a contex that a nonMaia actually beats a maia, is technically correct if one was keeping score, but Huan didnt kill Sauron. He did have him in what would be called a hard check.. lol But wasnt Sauron in the form of a vampire>? No books at work... sigh
Are there any other examples?
The only advantage i see a dragon has over a Balrog is:
flight (but again the debate still rages on that lol),
and, at least for the major dragons, the cunning mind.
That may be all they needed to win if one were to put those 2 together in a collosium... or mabye not - if environmental factors were taken away, and its just mano e mano - i would still lay down the ducks for the Balrog winning on brute evil strength.