SAME GYM. SAME weight class. Same tattoos. Same bulletproof belief. Same habitual hubris. Same lofty ambitions.
The parallels between Conor McGregor and James Gallagher are hardly inconspicuous. As he aims to fulfil his own ambitions of becoming a champion on the global stage, Gallagher has taken inspiration from his Straight Blast Gym team-mate’s remarkable rise in mixed martial arts.
McGregor has carved a path to the top for others to follow. The destination may be the same, but Gallagher has taken his own journey in a different direction. While McGregor rules the UFC, Gallagher plans to conquer a different territory.
“I’ve always been my own person,” Gallagher insists. “It just takes people time to recognise that kind of thing. Being compared to the greatest fighter in the world at the moment, that’s something I take great pride in because that’s exactly what I’m going to be known as some day.
“Some people say now, ‘James Gallagher is the next Conor McGregor and the next Gunnar Nelson’ or whatever, but in a couple of years’ time people are going to be saying ‘James Gallagher, the greatest ever.’
“They’re not going to be calling me the next anything because I’m not the next Conor McGregor, I’m not the next Gunnar Nelson, I’m the next James Gallagher. I’m not anyone else. I’m a future world champion and that’s all I’m working towards.
“What people see is that I’m young, confident and I’m going in and making a show of my opponents whenever I fight. That’s exactly what Conor, Gunni and all these other guys are doing too, so I can see why people refer to me as that.”
Gallagher only made his professional debut in October of last year but he was well accustomed to carrying a substantial weight of expectation on his shoulders by then. If McGregor, Cathal Pendred and Joseph Duffy, among others, represented Ireland’s first wave of MMA stars, Gallagher is the flag-bearer for the next generation.
A native of Strabane — hence the nickname ‘The Strabanimal’ — Gallagher left school at the age of 15 to move to Dublin, where he’s been training full-time under the tutelage of his coach and mentor, John Kavanagh, ever since.
Gallagher seemed destined to eventually join his SBG team-mates in the UFC, but before he could make a significant impression on Dana White and co, a rival promotion completed a shrewd piece of business by snapping up the Tyrone native.
Gallagher made his debut for Bellator at the O2 in London back in July, dominating Englishman Mike Cutting en route to a unanimous-decision victory that took his professional record to 4-0. Bellator expect big things from Gallagher, who’s the key component in their plans to increase their popularity in Ireland.
“James is a young kid but we have a lot of faith in him that he will develop into a big star for Bellator all over the world,” Bellator president Scott Coker told The42 in October.
“He’s a talented fighter but he also brings more than just fighting to the table. How he carries himself outside of the cage, he’s years ahead of his age in terms of how he handles himself. It’s really impressive for such a young guy. What he achieves will be up to him.”
Next Friday night, Bellator will make its Irish debut when Bellator 169 — a co-promotion with BAMMA 27 — takes place at the 3Arena in Dublin. The headline bout features Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal and Satoshi Ishii. However, Gallagher is adamant that he’s the main attraction — an assertion it’s difficult to argue with.
It’s no coincidence that Bellator’s first event in Ireland will take place just eight months after Gallagher signed with the promotion. He was even removed from a scheduled bout in Israel last month in order to ensure that he was available for next weekend’s card.
“People say I’m cocky and all that but since I was 13 years of age people have been telling me I’m going to be a world champion,” Gallagher says. “In the past three or four years I can really see where they’re coming from. I believe every word of that.
“I’m just telling it how it is. People are going to be looking back at interviews like this in a couple of years and saying ‘Fucking hell, James was right.’ Now they’re saying I’m cocky, now they’re saying I’m arrogant, but what are they going to say when I do become a world champion? What are they going to do when I’m number one?
“Now they’re slating me and putting me down — and they can do whatever they want, I don’t give a fuck — but I am who I am and I’m going to be a world champion.”
As Conor McGregor experienced in the aftermath of his loss to Nate Diaz in March, the problem with building yourself up to such an extent is that the fall — if and when it does come — is long, hard and painful. But that’s no deterrent for Gallagher.
“I don’t give a fuck,” he says. “I love fighting and I can’t see myself being beat. All these people who come in and slate people are just overweight men who play five-a-side football and think they’re Cristiano Ronaldo on a Wednesday night. That’s their life, so how can they slate a professional athlete?
“These are people who have never done a thing in their life besides playing football with their mates and going to the bar for a few pints. To me, that’s what arrogance is. They’re trying to make themselves feel better by putting another person down. I don’t get that. I think people like that have their own issues.”
Gallagher believes he can reach the summit of Bellator’s featherweight division within the next 12 months. The signs have been promising so far but there’ll be much bigger tests ahead if he’s to put himself in a position to challenge the likes of Patricio Freire, Pat Curran, Georgi Karakhanyan and reigning 145lbs champion Daniel Straus.
Bellator are in no rush with Gallagher either. Next weekend’s opponent Anthony Taylor boasts a 1-1 record so anything less than an emphatic victory is unlikely to do much for Gallagher’s championship aspirations. Nevertheless, time is on his side, even if he doesn’t intend to wait around for too long.
“This time next year I want to be challenging for the belt,” he says. “That’s what I expect and it feels like it won’t be long before I get there. This time next year would be the perfect time to do it.
“I’m going to go out and steal this show. I’m the real main event here. People are coming to watch this show because of me and they’re not going to be disappointed.”
