u/GIRose

From a doyalist perspective I get that the entire Shinshinkai Tournament is meant to be a low stakes and relatively grounded way to introduce Baki before absolute nonsense like Cord Cutting comes into play.

But from a Watsonian perspective, why did he go after someone who's definitely not on the level of the people he was fighting during the Childhood arc? Sure, he definitely wouldn't be ready to fight someone like Doppo, not that he knew that but just from the sake of actually writing the Manga, but the former greatest student of the Shinshinkai who left to go pursue unarmed bodyguard work for the Yakuza seems both like it would have made more sense, and have been more in line with the "No Hold Barred Fighting" the rest of the series follows.