ONE Championship

A US$100,000 contract now sits within reach of a fighter who once transferred out of city school just to keep training.

Worapon Lukjaoporongtom meets Lenny Blasi in the bantamweight Muay Thai main event of The Inner Circle 28, streaming live from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday, August 28.

Before any of that, Worapon was a boy in Buriram catching a 5 a.m. van to boarding school with no time left over for training. His father made the call to pull him out and enroll him locally so he could commit to the sport full-time by age 9 or 10. The decision shaped the rest of his career.

Fighting opportunities in Bangkok followed as a teenager. But his ONE Championship debut in 2023 did not go as planned. Running his camp out of Buriram rather than a bigger training hub left him short on experience. He suffered a narrow decision loss in that first appearance.

The permanent move to Sor Dechapan in Bangkok years later proved to be the turning point of his career.

“It was my first time living in Bangkok, so everything felt exciting and brand new,” Worapon said. “The training system here is completely different…it’s highly structured and disciplined, with specialized training that helped me continuously elevate my skills.”

Worapon’s setbacks fuel his push for the contract

That momentum was interrupted by a stretch of three straight scorecard losses. The stretch coincided with the hardest period of his life away from competition. He has since rebuilt to a 7-1 run overall. This includes three straight wins in 2026 that have put the six-figure contract within reach heading into Friday’s main event against Blasi.

“My morale took a heavy hit during that time because I lost my younger sibling,” Worapon said. “I had to battle through a lot internally, fighting my own mindset while dealing with personal factors that deeply affected my mental state.”

This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM