Johnny Lawrence

"You couldn't leave well enough alone, could you, little twerp? No, you had to push it. Well, now you're gonna pay!"

- Lawrence to Daniel

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Johnny Lawrence is the main antagonist of The Karate Kid. He was the best student of John Kreese's, Cobra Kai Dojo, and the ex boyfriend of Ali. Throughout the film, Johnny torments and bullies the main protagonist, Daniel LaRusso, but at the All-Valley Karate Tournament near the end of the film, Kreese told Lawrence to "sweep the leg' and he look at his teacher frighten. After he lost to Daniel, he shows respect to Daniel and gave him a trophy himself.

In the second film, John Kreese was not happy that Johnny wins second place, and after the argument between the two, Kreese berates him violently, but Miyagi stops him. After that Lawrence and the rest of the Cobra Kai students, left Cobra Kai, after seeing Kreese's true colors.

Johnny is played by actor William Zabka, notable for playing villains in various 1980s movies (another one of his villains is Greg Tolan from the 1985 coming of age high school comedy drama, Just One of The Guys). He did play a good guy in a 1980s sitcom, To Protect & Surf, as well as being featured in ''The Equalizer. Out of homage to his 1980s villianous roles, Zabka was cast as Rick Steelman in the 2010 film Hot Tub Time Machine.''