"I wanted to try competing" - Former lightweight king Ok Rae Yoon admits he started training MMA simply as a hobby

Former ONE lightweight MMA world champion Ok Rae Yoon has accomplished some great things in his career.

What makes his achievements even more impressive is how he came into the sport initially.

Now just 33 years old, the South Korean competitor only began training 10 years ago where he believed that his potential of becoming an athlete was simply too late for him.

Training in MMA was simply a passion for him, as he spoke about in a recent interview with ONE Championship:

"At that age, becoming a professional athlete seemed way too late. I really believed becoming a professional athlete was not an option for me. So I committed to my MMA training as a hobby while studying in school. I would train at night after classes."

However, as his training was going well and his passion for the sport was only increasing, he decided to jump into being an active fighter instead of just a hobbyist:

"After about four or five months of training, maybe because I was generally quite athletic and picking up the skills quite fast, I wanted to try competing."

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This decision changed the life of Ok Rae Yoon

It's remarkable just how much difference this one decision has made to the life and career of Ok Rae Yoon.

He could have easily stuck to his guns that this pursuit had found him too late in life and continued to train for the love of martial arts instead of anything else.

However, after dedicating himself to his training, he has reaped incredible rewards from all of his hard work and will look to continue doing so for many years.

The former lightweight MMA world champion returns at ONE Fight Night 23 where he looks to secure consecutive victories following his loss to Christian Lee.

He will take on Turkey's Alibeg Rasulov at the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium on July 5. The entire card is set to air live at US prime time and is free to watch for North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription.