So, James didn't have such high potential?
Okay, first I'm going to put two things on the table, the first is "potential" and the second is "talent", although I will add a third one which would be the "peak"
In this case, I will use talent to refer to a person's ability to pass or obtain something, such as a path
The potential, as in how far it can reach
And the peak for its maximum
During the fight between James and Tom, Tom obviously has greater strength than James, although he is not fast, his strength is superior, here's the first point, and it's that James' peak strength and potential in that aspect was really low compared to many current top characters, but his talent gave him the opportunity to gain the strength mastery
Second he will most likely need to use his Path to defeat Tom, and here's the other point, as we saw in Changsu's fight against Jiyoung, even if a person has four masteries, if their peak and potential are low, their capabilities will also be low, since both were equal in that aspect, even if we rest the experience, Jiyoung was far superior, except in combat IQ where Changsu surpassed him
Tom is currently fighting at a disadvantage, he has a head injury, he's old, and his speed is clearly below his prime even if he hasn't retired, this is the third point, Tom has a higher peak and potential than James in strength and endurance, but lacks talent
We could said James have a low peak, great potential, and excellent talent, his talent makes his potential high because of how far he can go overall, but if we only looked at specific statistics, his potential wouldn't be the best in some areas, his combat IQ is medium-high, but his arrogance is practically what lets him down, we have seen characters like Jinrang who dont have masteries(This is with respect to the 4 main ones we know), but Jinrang was extremely strong, resilient, was decent fast, and had decent technique, that means his peak is high and also his potential in general, but his talent wasn't enough to compensate that high peak
That's the situation Daniel faced, someone with such a high peak, have to find a way to compensate that, in Daniel's case, he has enough talent, and the Path, if we analyze it in detail, is really a theory, Jiyoung had the talent but never understood how Gap had gotten into that side of the pond, Johan remembered his conversation with Tom and understood, Daniel had been trying to understand it for many chapters until he noticed his senses
And finally, let's take a look at Seongji, the reason I mention this is because of another point I will make, we are often told that for someone to be strong they must fight, and fight, train, etc, that's how someone reaches their peak, Seongji had three masteries, initially two, strength and endurance Seongji didn't fight much, but he kept in shape, although he didn't exploit his potential, his endurance and strength were extremely low, so much that James, who had neither strength mastery nor invisible attacks, was demolish him, when he obtained his speed mastery, he was faster than James, who had already fought against Gap and had been trained by Elite and had much more experience with that mastery than Seongji and also in general, here it implies that regardless of whether it was conviction, Seongji had a higher peak and greater potential with that mastery than James, and he had the talent to achieve it, but here's the thing, his peak base wasn't that high, If we compare him to Jinrang there is a big difference, Seongji has high potential but a low base peak and quite good talent, If the speed thing doesn't convince you, another characters with the same speed mastery are quite unevenly matched with each other
So to conclude, James has a low peak base, high overall potential, and excellent talent, If he loses or is unable to handle things, is for this reason, If you didn't understand something, read it again or ask