Did you notice

Yeah they were wrong. They misjudged him.

This stood out to me. He seemed popular for five minutes then once he took a beating his ‘friends‘ dropped him like a hot turd. Why? Geeks and victims usually stick together.

Daniel was a social anomaly - a good looking and charming guy who instantly bags the hottest girl in school, but has zero friends and gets routinely battered by a gang of much bigger karate-trained bullies who at times genuinely seem to want to kill him.

Even his girlfriend’s friends hate him - why!?

I think the writers could have given him a couple of friends or at least fellow victims to spread the load a bit, and maybe have Daniel push back a bit before the tournament. As it is he’s basically a puppy getting kicked for two hours.