William “Gilbert” Ward is an amateur MMA fighter fighting out of PRO MAI MMA gym in West London, UK. Will Ward was born on 28th May 1991 in London, England and has an older sister, Sophie. Both children were the product of an extended extramarital affair, the subsequent discovery of which eventually led Ward to alcohol and drug abuse and his sister to attempt suicide. Ward also has two step brothers from his mother’s current marriage.

Ward found his way into MMA via the UK series of Australian martial arts competition Wimp2Warrior, in which he participated in 2016 to “clean himself up and get off the drugs.” In his first unsanctioned bout, Ward lost by TKO to Irish amateur Niall Travers in the shortest match of the competition, possibly due to a pre-existing inury. After the competition, Ward continued to train under Lee Aylett at PRO MAI MMA.

Ward’s first sanctioned bout was against Hamza Himdy at Fightstar Championship 14 in 2018. Ward was outclassed in the cage, but showed himself to be remarkably stubborn and resilient, eventually losing the fight to Himdy via rear naked choke in the second round. Ward had been accused of a serious sexual offence at the time, and had been interviewed by the Police shortly prior to the fight. Ward cited this as the reason for his defeat.