World championship gold medallist Will Bingham is targeting a career in MMA as he looks to add national titles to his growing resume in 2025.
The Mansfield teenager won two golds in kickboxing and MMA at the World Combat Championships in Hungary last summer, helping his Nottinghamshire-based club Revolution finish second out of 62 international teams.
Bingham, who turns 18 next July, said: “I started traditional martial arts at the age of around 12 and then at 15 I decided I wanted to go down the full contact route to hopefully become an MMA fighter.”
Bingham’s success has not come without challenges.
“The balance of college work and training as many times as six days a week becomes a very difficult task,” added Bingham, who won Mansfield young sportsperson of the year for 2024.
“It can be done, but it comes with sacrificing your social life which can become stressful and tiring.”
As well as the social deficits, Bingham has had to overcome serious injuries, which he says mentally affected him.
He said: “It meant I couldn’t train for months which made me question if I could ever get back to where I was and made me feel as though I’d fallen behind.”
Despite these setbacks, the Mansfield-born star reached the peak of his career thus far, winning and retaining the British RECC title and brought his amateur MMA record to 2-0-0 with a fierce knockout in the second of those bouts.
Looking ahead to the future, Will said: “My long-term goals are to become a professional MMA fighter and eventually reach the UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship] which is the goal for almost all aspiring fighters as that’s where the best of the best are.”
“There are many new skills I need to learn, however once I do, I believe I will be able to start challenging for national amateur titles.”
To see how Will gets on in 2025, follow his progress with CBJ Target.
