@Montana: Palpatine doesn't necessarily have to sense Anakin is coming if it is something he has foreseen in advance.
As for whether or not Palpatine was trying to finish Mace off, trying to delay the fight until Anakin arrived, or actually tried to look helpless when Anakin arrived, it's really something we'll never know.
Now about all of the "who was most powerful" talk...now you're getting into a very grey area. Even if we're talking about pure combat power there is no true way to measure that - in the movies or in real life. In combat or a fight, the "best" doesn't always win. And just because a person wins doesn't mean they are more powerful or skilled. Also, Montana did make a good point about age and the state of one's body in regards to combat ability.
Anyone ever watch combat sports? Boxing, kickboxing, competitive wrestling, judo, jiu-jistsu, MMA? If you notice, the combatants who could stomp pretty much any person to death are often under the guidance of an older and more experienced coach or team of coaches. The coaches experience and understanding of the game makes the younger, more powerful and able combatant a better fighter, even if in a "fight" the younger fighter would probably defeat the coach. Then when that fighter ages and loses his edge, he will train younger and more able fighters like his mentors did before him. It's not always about who can kick whoever's ass, it's often about an understanding of the art and combat itself.
Then you have to realize that combat has a lot of variables to it. Take Wanderlei Silva and Kazushi Sakuraba for example(MMA fighters). In a striking match, the advantage goes to Silva(muay thai background). In a wrestling/grappling match the advantage goes to Sakuraba(wrestling background). In their 3 MMA matches against each other, Silva won all 3. In Saku's best match against Silva(second match I believe), it was a wrestling move used by Silva(the striker) that won him the match again Sakuraba(the wrestler). In their first match, everyone was shocked when Sakuraba actually knocked Silva down with striking, though Silva eventually won. Those matches didn't play out how they "should" have played out.
If you start looking deeper into fighter's and their matches, things aren't as simple as 1+1=2. Silva twice defeated Quinton Jackson, who twice defeated Chuck Liddell, who twice defeated Randy Couture, who has also once defeated Liddell and Tito Ortiz, both of whom have defeated Silva.
Then some people just have their day against certain fighters on a certain day. As I touched on in the paragraph above, Randy Couture destroyed Chuck Liddell in their first match, but Chuck destroyed him in the next two matches against each other. Sometimes Fighter A has Fighter B's "number" and will walk all over him, even though Fighter A was unable to beat Fighter C that Fighter B easily defeated. What about Buster Douglas and Mike Tyson? Douglas did what many thought was impossible when he defeated Tyson in a very convincing fashion. But for all we know, they could have had 10 rematches and Tyson could have won every one of the rematches.
The point is this. Qui Gon was defeated by Maul, but on any other day we do not know who would win this match. Kenobi defeated Maul, but we don't know who would have won if they had squared off at another point in time. Dooku wiped the floor with Kenobi, but perhaps Qui Gon would have been a better match against Dooku. What would have happened if Dooku and Maul had squared off? Luke defeated Vader, but everyone knows he didn't have the combat training, years of experience, or familiarity with the Force that Vader did. When Kenobi and Anakin first face each other, the movies lead us to believe that Anakin is more than able to defeat Kenobi. Kenobi wins in devastating fashion after a long, brutal fight(which should favor the younger fighter), but through presence of mind and using the terrain and Anakin's ego against him, he finds a way to win.
So trying to say Bob is more powerful/skilled/intelligent than Joe because he beat Joe up is pretty silly. 99% of the time the best fighter in any combat sport loses at some point in his career. The difference is that with Jedi(or for a real world comparison, gladiators, pancrase fighters, or soldiers in a war), they may not have the opportunity to avenge a loss and learn from it, or utter the phrase "He was the better fighter today, it's back to the drawing board for me...".
"I feel like I could take on the whole Empire myself."
