Your right he didnt stand a chance. as soon as minato saw the flaw in his space time ninjutsu tobi knew he had to flee. All it takes to control the 9 tails is the sharingan. And he was working with madara, and madara has the capacity to teach him in 3 years, althoughity seems to be 4 years more like it. Where did sasuke learn kirin? these are things which can be picked up by the age of 17 (thats due to my calculations), and even tobi didnt know its weakness, minato was the first to learn it and tobi didnt even think that it was a possibility, so it must have been relatively knew to him. He appears to have senju dna, and that is what made it easier for tobi to control the beast, but it is still spectacular that he could hold it for that long. Any uchiha does have the ability to control the ninetails. its a roperty of the 3rd sharingan tomoe.