Coopar Royal, one of Australia's brightest MMA prospects, is set to test himself in ONE Championship today.
Australian Coopar Royal competes in a recent bout.
The undefeated fighter will take on Ely Fernandez of Cape Verde in a flyweight MMA bout at ONE Lumpinee 40 at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.
He hopes to kick off a run towards one of the 3.5 million baht contracts on offer at ONE's weekly shows.
The rising star, who will be making his promotional bow, is nicknamed "Rush."
Royal was born and raised in Rockhampton, Central Queensland, Australia, to a single mother.
He played rugby league as a youngster, but he was too small to make an impact in the sport.
After being expelled from school for poor behaviour, the scrappy kid spent his time at the skate park instead of playing sports and, by his own admission, "got into the wrong crowd."
Finding MMA was a turning point in his life.
By age 18, Royal had no background in martial arts and had shown only a passing interest in on-screen action heroes such as Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee.
He started watching MMA shows on DVD with his friends and slowly it piqued his interest.
But as much as he wanted to try the sport himself, he didn't think there was a place to train in the quiet regional centre he lived in.
One day when scrolling through Facebook, he saw that a friend was training at a local gym, and he immediately reached out.
Soon, Royal was experiencing the rush of fight training, and he knew instantly that he wanted to become a world champion one day.
Fighting was Royal's goal from the start, and he quickly established himself as one of Australia's top amateurs in an 8-2 run that yielded title belts in two different weight classes on the local circuit.
The Family Fight Team representative then headed to Sydney to complete his fight camps under renowned coach Renato Subotic, and he turned professional in 2022.
However, he found himself unable to get matched after an impressive win on debut.
That led Royal to try his hand at other arts such as Muay Thai and kickboxing to stay active, before he was finally able to take his second professional MMA bout in August after 10 months on the sidelines.
A subsequent short-notice victory just two weeks later took his professional MMA mark to 3-0 and caught the eye of ONE Championship.
Royal now has a golden opportunity to impress the ONE top brass at ONE Fight Night 40, but the 24-year-old will face a stiff test in the form of Fernandez.
"The Dragon" holds an impressive 6-1 professional record, with five of his wins coming via finishes on the ground.
The 28-year-old is also making his ONE debut and his grappling prowess will create an interesting match-up for the dynamic, striking-heavy game of Royal.
There will be a great deal of intrigue back home in Australia, as the highly rated "Rush" looks to shake up ONE's stacked flyweight division that is currently ruled by American legend Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson.