Rihito not winning the match is the true twist here, but it is actually quite reasonable and this chapter just continues to develop Rihito’s theme of still being in development. As Gensai said, he’s not going to catch up to fighters like Rei in just 2 years, and despite some people’s biases, ninja man is a skilled fighter with years of experience and some people just can’t help but let all his theatrics distract them from this point. He even established his own practical style of ninjutsu; while being the founder of a style doesn’t necessarily mean one’s fight intelligence is superior to one who just inherits and practices a particular martial arts lineage, it sets the floor high above a relative newbie like Rihito, and perhaps even Adam in this case, since they’re both in the same category of being formerly unskilled fighters who’ve picked up the important points of proper martial arts recently.
And to hell with anyone who says that we need to sympathize with a fighter to actually like their fights. Sekibayashi’s fight against Ohma was great, same as with Julius’ fight with Wakatsuki. We only needed to know them as the wrestling guy and as the steroids guy, but their fights were awesome.
At any rate, I’m expecting a draw here, since the knockdown win rule requires that the fighter be able to get back up in 10 seconds.