If this was Chansard's scene that Toei cut down, then maybe it was the right move. He tends to go over the top with his scenes and while it's great for raw fights, it's not neccesserily a good fit for moments that lean more on the emotional side of things. But then again, we didn't see his work in full, maybe it was actually great and fit the mood, who knows...
Anyway, episode was fantastic. Oda's character writing can sometimes go over my head in the manga for various reason, one of them being that it just gets lost in the chaos of all the characters and things happening, but this episode really did a great job on taking this aspect of his writing and moving it to the forefront with right pacing and directing.
I'm happy for Garp that he met Koby and, after Dragon, Luffy and Kuzan, he finally got a pupil he always wanted.