South Florida-born, Lakeland-raised Troy Worthen now in Singapore for ONE top MMA company

Interview with MMA fighter “Pretty Boy” Troy Worthen, an up-and-comer with ONE Championship, Asia’s largest global sports media property.

ONE Championship is seen in the United States on TNT and also globally via Bleacher Report LIve.

Currently 7-0, Worthen is 3-0 for ONE Championship, beating Mark Abelardo (19-6) in February. He trains with Evolve MMA in Singapore. Winning an opportunity to train with Evolve saved Worthen’s career.

Worthen, 27, was born at St. Mary’s Hospital in West Palm Beach in South Florida. He grew up in Lakeland in Central Florida, attending Mulberry Middle School.

A multisport athlete at Mulberry High School, Worthen turned his life around after missing districts in wrestling his freshman season because of academic ineligibility. He improved his academic standing and became a two-time state qualifier in wrestling for the Panthers, placing third and fifth at state at the hometown Lakeland Civic Center.

While training in MMA and working part-time, Worthen also wrestled for the University of Central Florida in Orlando, earning a degree.

Here is my audio interview with Worthen. He discusses Coronavirus, ONE Championship, Evolve MMA, Wrestling, Lakeland, Singapore, Undertaker, The Rock and more.

Worthen’s childhood was tough, but he matured determined and strong.

When he was 2, his mom met with a car accident, causing a stroke. She had to relearn basic functions like talking, walking. She wasn’t able to be there for Troy growing up. When she recovered physically, she turned to alcohol, and eventually, his father separated from his mom and took custody of Worthen.

His dad worked hard to play the role of mom and dad, when Worthen was growing up. With support from his dad, he also had martial arts and wrestling.

https://www.onefc.com/athletes/troy-worthen/

https://www.foxsports.ph/combat-sports/one-championship/1065012/one-championships-singapore-event-converted-to-closed-door-event/

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Jim Varsallone

Miami Herald

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Jim Varsallone writes a high school sports column twice a week, featuring top performers in all varsity sports (boys and girls) in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. He also covers pro wrestling, something he’s done since his college days in the late 1980s. Now in his fifth decade of coverage, he currently follows WWE (Raw, SmackDown and NXT), AEW, Ring of Honor, TNA Impact Wrestling, MLW, WOW, NWA, and the South Florida indies, mainly CCW. He writes MMA, too -- mostly profile stories and video interviews with American Top Team and Sanford MMA fighters in South Florida. As for pro wrestling, he writes feature stories and profile pieces, updates upcoming show schedules in South Florida, photographs the action and interviews talent (audio and video) -- sharing the content here and via social media on his Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel: jim varsallone (jimmyv3 channel). Support my work with a digital subscription