Well now that I´ve calmed down my boiling fury at having Yukihira 2.0*, and actually read the chapter, I can honestly say I am glad with how Rihito fought.
Were it not for the poison, he would´ve destroyed an A-Lister from purgatory, which Kurechi said are all super strong guys.
And I also think the author will use both of these losses as a means to motivate the Kengan Fighters to finally unite, since both losses, for the Kengan side, are considered disonhorable (Ring out and Poison). If he does, its very fitting that we as readers are feeling the same as the characters, which is always a admirable thing for an author to actually pull off.
Especially since I thought that both losses actually did treat the losers fairly.
Carlos was a clear stand-in, powerlevel wise, to KAT Gaolong, at least i felt like it with him being able to switch styles and being said to be the one boxer who wasbetter in the Pound stuff (even if he fucking sucked) and Rihito´s showed a lot of improvement. We all know KAT Rihito would´ve been destroyed here.
THAT BEING SAID
I fucking hate this cliche of "oh hes strong but poison buh bye"
And I hate that Rihito was the one sacrificied for that. Sure he is still developing, but I would´ve hoped for Okubo to be the one to take a fall, if we needed our suspension of disbelief restored (IE Everyone thought Rihito and Okubo were guaranted wins).
So its a fairly mixed reaction chapter for me, which I think was what the author was going for.
Im gonna go make a call that, because of that feeling of "KENGAN WIN PLS", the next fighter is either gonna be Masaki, who people care nothing for*, Nitoku who´s a lot of people expect to lose and could maybe get a power up going like "Oh, it would be a perfect narrative if we can win now and start to turn the tables, I WANT TO MAKE THAT NARRATIVE COME TRUE", or Okubo, since we now know no one is safe and as such, even if we will really want a win out of him, we will be on the edge of our seats hoping for the win, but knowing he could actually lose.
*Not dissing on the character, but I think if we did a popularity pool for the kengan side he would be the last, and no one actually cares about MASAKI the person, just MASAKI the mystery (aka clone stuff). So that would be a perfect oportunity to have us rally behind him.
Overall I want to give this chapter a 9/10, but fuck you for making Rihito lose, -9/10
*