Tragedy has struck the MMA coming as longtime competitor and Bellator MMA veteran William Joplin has passed away at the age of 41 years old. The fighter had been battling pancreatic cancer since August of 2018, but succumb to the disease and passed away this past Tuesday.
Shelley Joplin, who is William’s sister, posted the tragic news about his passing on the fighter’s Go Fund Me page:
“It hurts to inform everybody but William Joplin lost his fight with Pancreatic cancer this morning. We could still use your help paying for cremation expenses and a memorial service.”
Joplin won the Dynasty Combat Sports Bantamweight Title at DCS 41 in April of 2018, which would tragically serve as the final fight in his professional MMA career. Joplin competed once under the Bellator MMA banner, suffering a unanimous decision loss to Juan Archuleta at Bellator 195. Joplin picked up a total of sixteen wins as a professional MMA fighter and more than half of them came by way of submission.
The now deceased Joplin was a major influence in the Missouri MMA scene, having recently trained out of Glory Fitness & MMA with UFC veteran James Krause and a host of others.
