Let Them Swing for the Fences in the First Round

They only let them wrestle or jiu-jitsu or whatever in the first round.

Why?

Because they are afraid a bully will land a lucky punch and end the MMA guy's career, out of embarrassment of losing to some unknown dude off the street. If these two guys (the bully and the MMA guy) met on the street this rule wouldn't exist. If they met in a sanctioned match this rule wouldn't exist.

They would swing away from the start.

The bully is handicapped already coming in with a critical lack of experience, even though to the shows credit they give them some time (how much a month, a week?) to prepare.

If the show goes so far in the spirit of fairness to train them, and to listen to their opinion in the interview portion of the show then why not also extend the bully this courtesy out of true sportsmanship and fairness.

It's almost like the show is "sucker punching" the bully.

If the show thinks it's fair to cheat the bully this way, and there might be a case for it, they ought to just come out and explain their rationale for not allowing punches in the first round.

Maybe they have and I missed it. I don't know

MMA purists might see this as fearfulness on the part of the show (and the MMA fighters) though and what the show is trying to accomplish, seemingly being an advocate for people who are bullied , yes I would go so far as to say that, and it is a good cause... a great cause really...

But if the cause, if the show somehow is making claims about rightness and wrongness of bullying...they ought to lead by example.

Give the bully a fair shake. And a fair shake would be to not handicap them by not allowing them to do what they would do naturally in a given fight scenario.

Let the chips fall where they may and if the bully lands a lucky punch let there be a much hyped rematch that boosts the shows ratings.