William Bates IV holds three national boxing titles. He’s 8
William Bates IV holds up his Silver Gloves championship belt from the National Junior Olympics in Independence, Missouri. Photo by Isra Ali
By North News Intern Staff
As an eight-year-old, William Bates IV ranked at the top in the nation in Silver Gloves boxing with an undefeated record of 15-0. The medal-rich champion has been boxing since age 5 and took home a third national championship in late June at 9.
William’s National Junior Olympic Tournament win in Wichita, Kansas, in June was by technical knockout (TKO).
“He stopped his opponent in less than a minute,” William’s dad, William Bates III, said. “We have it on film.”
To win by TKO at such a young age is unusual. Most of William’s wins are by decision, where boxers fight for three rounds of 90 seconds each.
William trains at Lucy Laney Boxing Academy, where his dad has been coaching for five years.
“My dad inspired me to box and be a pro fighter,” William said.
Bates said he wanted to be a boxer himself, but realized his place was on the side of the ropes, not in the ring. Morgan McDonald, the head coach at Lucy Laney Boxing Academy, introduced Bates to coaching.
“I got with Coach Morgan,” Bates said. “I wanted my son to do boxing. I called around to a lot of gyms, and he's the only one who says, at five-years-old, I can bring him.”
William keeps a consistent training routine. He trains two to three hours every weekday and occasionally on weekends.
“I wake up, and I eat breakfast, and I go to school, do my work, get my education, and then boxing comes through,” William said. He said his favorite parts of training are cardio and “punching the bag.”
Through all this training, recent competitions he has won include a 2026 National Silver Gloves championship in Independence, Missouri, and a 2025 National Junior Olympics championship in Las Vegas.
His achievements have made it difficult to find opponents. According to Bates, William gets turned down for national fights because of his undefeated record. Bates has even tried to schedule fights with older boxers, but “they tell us no.”
William is now one of many national champions coming out of Lucy Laney Boxing Academy, and he looks up to those champions, including Madison McDonald, Z’karion Walker, Morgan McDonald Jr., and Lavender Nelson.
William said he wants to be a “big dog just like them.” At the same time, younger kids look up to him. William’s advice to upcoming boxers is to “never give up.”
Article contributors: Muhamad Ali, Jaedin Rooney, Milania Little, Saadiya Saed, Shy Martin, Arie Gatlin, Hanan Abdullahi, Isra Ali, Zenovia Little, and Dom Cintorino