In the trilogy he is largely overrated.
All he did was track them. That's it.
And then Han accidentally activated his jetpack. Where did he get that thing? Second Hand Antiques? Like, worst place for a switch. He fired at luke a couple times in Empire. I think, but missed. That's it.
No reason to believe he was a bad ass then. You're over-rating him. His story now? Yeah, that's f**kin' bad ass.