Sleeping on Daniel's number of wins between 1984/1985

As much as the original Karate Kid and Karate Kid III paint Daniel as an underdog all the way through, and focus on the final fights as the true tests of Daniel's will and ability, the fact is, in order to even make it to the final round against Johnny in 1984 and against Barnes in 1985, he had to win SEVEN straight fights, against the best fighters from all different dojos. These mostly included Cobra Kai, but some others as well, who had no grudge to taint their performance. And he had to do this for both runs before going on to win the eighth fight as well, both times. That means that Daniel actually won SIXTEEN refereed fights between the two tournaments.

And in almost all of those fights leading up to the final confrontations, Daniel took his opponents apart pretty methodically. And that by itself is pretty badass.

EDIT: A bunch of people have now reminded me that Daniel got a bye in '85 to go right to fighting Barnes for the championship. Still his seven wins in '84 (or at least 6 of the 7, because one Cobra Kai guy was instructed to fight dirty) required technical badassery.