Quaden Bayles is getting the shot to brush up on some mixed martial arts. The 9-year-old Australian recently went viral after his mother posted a video of him crying as a result of constant bullying. While Bayles has gotten no shortage of support from people across the globe, ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong has offered him free MMA lessons in an Instagram post on Thursday.
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It turns out that Sityodtong’s message didn’t go unheard, as he told TMZ on Friday that Bayles is taking him up on his offer.
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“I just spoke to his amazing mom, Yarraka, over the phone,” Sityodtong said. “She has graciously accepted my invitation to come to Singapore for an all-expenses-paid vacation so Quaden can learn martial arts at EVOLVE. Our instructors will be sure to bully-proof Quaden. If he wakes up from his nap, we plan to FaceTime tonight. Yarraka said that he might sleep through the night. If so, we will FaceTime tomorrow. Let us all take the opportunity to show little Quaden how much the world cares.”
Bayles, who suffers from achondroplasia dwarfism, received an outpouring of kind words from celebrities including Hugh Jackman and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Comedian Brad Williams has even created a GoFundMe page to help send him to Disneyland, which as of Friday is just shy of $400,000.
Little People, Big World star Matt Roloff, who suffers from diastrophic dysplasia, offered Bayles a tour of his homestead via an Instagram post on Thursday evening.
“Let Quaden (and his mom) know they are welcome to swing by Roloff farms for a full VIP tour and some encouragement on how wonderful being a little person Can be,” Roloff the reality star wrote in the caption, adding the hashtag ‘hang in there buddy, it gets better.’
Speaking to Australia’s ABC News, Yarraka said that “it’s every parent’s worst nightmare; losing their babies,” adding, “and that’s my reality every day.“
“It’s extremely hard but it’s also strengthening. It’s brought a whole family together, it’s brought a whole community together, it’s brought the short-statured people of the world together in making sure he’s safe.” She added that the now-viral post has helped her son go “from the worst day of his life to the best day of his life” overnight.
