Yeah, the new brawler is much better for actions. I can beat every opponent except the trainer. I always get down to four options...two blocks, a slip and a fail. What do you do then? If you block your get finished. If you slip you get finished. Still a fu game though.
It all depends how you set your skills up. I can beat all them routinely, including the trainer, but you absolutely must max your power. Rage is pretty much a waste of time. Your skill points are better spent on Power, stamina and block. Once you get comfortable with the new brawler style then you don't really need extra speed either, having enough natively (at least so far). All of this assumes that you're fighting at normal ability and not the hard level.
TBH I'm not sure how much os the previous skills carried over. I had my skills maxed in earlier versions but everything for me was at 2 bars or less to start and I needed to beat Troy once to raise stats, beat the Asian guy once to raise max, then go back and beat Troy again to further raise stats. The other guys minus the trainer were easy and as long as you always dodge and don't block the trainer (whenever possible) then you will outlast him if your power is high enough.