I know that he's supposed to be powerful (He has been training for over 3 years, so it'd be silly of him not to), but I just don't like how the game gives you almost no other way to get up to his level aside from just fighting the same level 40-something Pokemon over and over again. Definitely not fun.

I always grinded Pokemon league rather than wild pokemons, since they give you about twice the exp.

And Red was lame, although his levels were like 70 and 80 (83, was it?), I beat him with lower level, without even using items.

That's what I'm currently grinding for right now: To take on the improved Elite 4.

And one of my friends imported his toughest Pokemon from other games (one of them being level 100) and still had trouble taking on Red, so I'm not taking any chances.