A rather out-of-context takeout of:

I recently read of a certain theist that he had defeated Christopher Hitchens in a debate (severely so; this was said by atheists). And so I wrote at once to the Bloggingheads folks and asked if they could arrange a debate. This seemed like someone I wanted to test myself against. Also, it was said by them that Christopher Hitchens should have watched the theist's earlier debates and been prepared, so I decided not to do that, because I think I should be able to handle damn near anything on the fly, and I desire to learn whether this thought is correct; and I am willing to risk public humiliation to find out. Note that this is not self-handicapping in the classic sense—if the debate is indeed arranged (I haven't yet heard back), and I do not prepare, and I fail, then I do lose those stakes of myself that I have put up; I gain information about my limits; I have not given myself anything I consider an excuse for losing.

I don't expect I can handle 'anything' domain-unspecifically on the fly. I thought I should be able to handle arguments William Lane Craig made, or tactics he used, on the fly. The entire article is about "Don't guess your strength when you can just test yourself", especially if the test is cheap, and the world doesn't end if I lose a debate to Craig. In any case, Craig declined to debate me, which makes me wonder if he's actually just careful in his choice of debating opponents.

I think this is sufficiently out-of-context that I object to the redacted quote and to its interpretation. The original quote is about finding out your ability level by using cheap/noncatastrophic tests.