I have heard that some fuzzy lops have coats that matt easily when they are young. Some breeders will shave them so the coat won't matt as much until the adult coat come in.
Maybe you can find someone who is able to shave him for you. It will be a bit stressful for him, but having someone else do it means he won't be as mad at you. You can then focus on bonding with him and not worry about grooming for a little while. You can work on just running a brush over him and as the coat grows back then he should be more used to it and you can start to do more serious grooming. i find with my angora that it takes about a month or so for the coat to really need grooming or brushing again. Babies might be a big different, but you should still have a few weeks to bond with him without too much worry.
If you don't want him fully shaved, you could just get the belly done. That is an area that tends to be bad and harder to brush out, so keeping it short does help. The neck is also an area that can be good to keep short.
