I had a nice chat with some of the Hornet and SH types out at Lemoore a few years ago, including some of the SFWS graduates and instructors. I asked them those pointed questions about how well they'd do against modern Flankers, given equal pilot skills and level of tactical proficiency (key caveat). After the first round of mandatory kick-@$$ blustering was over, they admitted that things could get kind of dicey......
the issue of which would do better in a fight is all woven into the operational scenario, tactical situation and profesional level of training and tactics of the opposing forces. Now with that enormous caveat out of the way - it boils down to which update mods and weapons have been installed in the opposition aircraft. These platforms and weapons capabilities have been see-sawing back and forth for years. Some of the stuff on the Super Flankers have come out first or caught up, and some of the stuff on the Super Hornet have come out first or caught up.
and remember that the super weapons with brilliant seekers integrated into the aircraft and cockpit and helmets is a major, major part of any such equation.
overall - tough call between them. I've heard some of our best fighter pilots and generals say, referring to exercises, that our pilots in our planes beat their pilots in their pilots but that our pilots in their planes beat our pilots in our planes. And then our guys went and played with the Indian AF and got their @$$ handed to them........
(lots of exercise artificialities at play - which goes back to my first point on scenarios, etc.)
So who the heck knows? We'll find out when someone with SH's goes up against SF's. I'll go with the SH, but then I'm kind of biased.....