I've said this before. The sucker punch was fine because T'Challa was egging her on. But after that it should of been a one sided victory for T'Challa and Omolola shouldn't of even touched him after that. The line "Your not that good" was just so cheesy and doesn't even make sense. And like you said he has tangled with far greater than her.
Beat IF on straight combat, one shot Karnak, beat a super skrull who had all the fighting Styles of every 616 Martial artist including his own, ragdolled wolverine and straight beat him in The Phoenix tournament, systematically dismantled MK. There much more. Point is, dude had tangled with some of the Best the 616 has to offer. Why the hell does Omolola not only think she can beat him, but then actually is about to get a hit on him when he is focused on her? All so T'Challa could throw her line back at her? That is weak
I personally think that R to the H got it right: T'Challa doesn't fight women. This? Should have been an opportunity to see Ayo or someone NOT Okoye shine and handle this biz. If I wrote that encounter...
...well, I wouldn't've done so, because such behavior by T'Challa is expected by anyone in the business of espionage. Allies spy on each other as much as they spy on their enemies. The Avengers already know that T'Challa has a plan in place to take the entire team down or control them, if they become a threat to Wakanda [ R to the H had Prince Namor proclaim knowledge of T'Challa's preparedness in this regard around issue 19 or 20 of RH's run ].
However, since we're clearly riding with Ridley and Ridley is cool with T'Challa hotboxin with women..?
I ride with everything that Brother Ezyo said above...
...except the sucker punch part.
My fellow self defense practitioners will probably know what I'm referring to when I reference the approach that Bruce Lee popularized as The 5 Ways of Attack. In this case, in JKD terminology, T'Challa was using the Concept of ABD...ATTACK BY DRAWING. He was drawing the attack that he wanted from Omolola.
But our original Montu [ ALKEBULAN miscalled African self defense and whole human development systems ] has several names for this principle over the hundreds of thousands of years of its existence. In my family's system of Njia Uhuru Kipura, the concept is called UDANGANYIFU. And even this "younger" version of the Principle is OLDER THAN CHINA IS.
What I mean by the above is...T'Challa was baiting the attack he wanted from Omolola, and would have sharply, physically reprimanded her for making the attempt to assault him the moment she tried to do so. This is why any author who writes scenes of h2h combat would be very well advised to be a self defense practitioner him/herself, or have a collaborator who is an expert in h2h and weapons combat. Because the fight scenes crafted when such knowledge is missing is glaringly and instantly inept or questionable to the eyes of experienced practitioners.
That is the one area that Jonathan Maberry unquestionably outshone everyone else in: the fight scenes he crafted for Shuri were visceral and realistic. He even showed a technique that I teach women for self defense. Untrained authors miss these incredibly important opportunities to express the nuances, subtleties and clear inviolate facets of a character in moments of combat, which are universally regarded as one of the few forms of communication during which no entity may lie about its nature. This reality can even be worked into plot points, and sleuthing.
Other than the fact that imo T'Challa doesn't fight women, and that the "sucker punch" landed [ how are you going to "sucker punch" a man who hears your muscles bunch and your breath and blood flow change prior to and just as you begin to launch whatever attack you're going to attempt ]? I concur with and cosign every one of the lucid points that our Brother Ezyo made above.