Quote Originally Posted by Wintermoot View Post
That's one reading of the story. Here's another that skews closer to the actual narrative of the movie.

Shang-Chi was FORCED to learn martial arts while being tortured for seven years from 7 to 14. It's not something he actively sought out. Something he had begrudgingly forced upon him. I would expect someone enthused to learn martial arts who put effort into learning it to be a better student than someone being forced to do it.

Add to that that, by all appearances, Shang Chi STOPPED training at 14 years old and spent 10 years drinking, working minimum wage jobs, slacking off and trying hard to lose everything he had learned whereas his Sister spent those same 10 years honing her craft, continuing her training and participating in non-practice cage fights in order to get stronger and better.

Yeah, I wonder why she might be better than him. If anything the movie UNDERSOLD how much better she should be than him.
That's a possible read, but we do actually see that Shang-Chi is at a minimum maintaining physical condition. We don't see him training, but we do see him exercising. More crucially, I really don't think the cage fight tells us anything about their respective skills, as Shang-Chi is (if I'm remembering) explicitly not trying to fight her.