WORCESTER, Mass. — A world-class athlete from Worcester is helping fans at the Olympics learn more about the sport he loves, and he's getting support from his coworkers at Burton's in Shrewsbury.

Aaron Ortiz is a five-time world champion Muay Thai fighter. The martial art is on display this year at the Paris games as a demonstration sport and the Worcester native can now say he's represented his country as the USA's lone male Muay Thai fighter at the Olympics.

Ortiz's friends and coworkers at Burton's Grill in Shrewsbury dropped everything on Tuesday morning to hop on social media and watch a stream of his exhibition fight in Paris.

Fighting for USA out of the red corner, Ortiz stepped in the ring against a fighter from Croatia. They both were recognized for helping showcase Muay Thai.

Ortiz has worked at Burton's since 2019 and his coworkers said they are proud of how far he's come on his journey through the sport.

"I think it's kind of wild because I've been kind of on this journey for them for a long time, even as like just a coworker when I first started and watching him grow," bartender Crystal Lowe said. "I always knew from the moment we met him, he's been passionate about his training and fighting and this journey. I can say I never really thought that I would get to here. Not that I doubted him. I just was not informed. So it was really cool to watch him grow and be through this journey with him for sure; as a coworker and a friend."

"He's a really nice guy. When he's at work with us, we've got little kids and everyone just come to see him and have a line to wait to sit at his tables and then he has patience with everybody," general manager Flavio Parente said. (Aaron is a) very cool, man. Very cool man."

The International Federation of Muaythai Associations is working to make Muay Thai to an official Olympic sport one day.