That's flawed logic there though because how can you explain any of Ash's Pokemon tanking hits? Ash clearly has stated his strategies rely completely on what Trip did with Serperior, Speed with Power as an added bonus. Ash revolves all his tactics around Pikachu's abilities, the biggest glass cannon and tanker this show offers. The only time Ash has ever induced an actual form of defense was the counter shield, which worked perfectly with his style because it was still offensive in the end. So explain to me, why is it that Pikachu, which has no defensive training to speak of in Unova (or despite the CS, none in the shows existence), can tank blow after blow from Serperior, but Serperior, which you claim also has no defensive training, faints so easily from a resisted combo attack? The answer is you can't other then bad writing, you can't assume that Serperior had lackluster defense based off one defeat to a Champion's Pokemon who had it's attack power raised thanks to Sap Sipper. Also, of coarse Trip was gonna try to avoid damage at all cost in that tournament, Serperior was at a disadvantage in every single battle (3 Fire types and 1 Bug type) till he faced Alder (which was a different form of disadvantage)