He does already have Haki and soru, so it makes sense to me. And it's not like he's a G5/Grand Line Captain, probably. There is a difference in captains, remember, we've seen some weak navy captains before.
Really, Taishigi should be stronger and higher rank, rather than Coby lower.
Anyone else feel bad for Zoro's old sparing partner?
I mean, aside from being dead, she was outsparring Zoro and adults as a kid. Apparently pretty easily. Taishigi may have her face, but is totally a pale shadow of that.
Kuina? Yeah. She didn't even get a cool death. She fell down some stairs. One of my worst fears is going out in such a lame way.
Fun fact: Before really using the internet, I used to watch the 4Kids version of One Piece since it was all I had. And because it's 4Kids, they don't have Kuina killed. What happens is she apparently beat a guy in a match so the guy got a bunch of his friends and beat her up so badly that she would never get better or be able to hold her sword.
Another example of 4kids excellent work. Death by accident? WTFNO! CENSOR THAT SHIT IMMEDIATELY! What, how do we deal with the character? Oh well, lets just have her get beaten so badly she's crippled for life.