WHEN HE SITS down to watch his team-mates in action on Saturday night at UFC 194, Peter Queally expects to be one step closer to his own dreams of competing in the octagon than he is now.
Conor McGregor and Gunnar Nelson will be flying the Straight Blast Gym flag in Las Vegas, but 10,000 kilometres away in the Italian city of Rimini, Queally has business of his own to address.
Queally, a 29-year-old welterweight who hails from Dungarvan, will aim to take his professional record to 7-2 when he takes on Roberto Rigamonti under the banner of the Venator FC promotion.
Now based in Dublin and representing the SBG camp, Queally has been training with McGregor, Nelson and The Ultimate Fighter’s Artem Lobov for his ninth professional bout.
“It’s going to be a great night for SBG,” Queally told The42, as he looks ahead to Saturday. “We’ve all been training mad together over the last six-to-eight weeks and there’s been a really good atmosphere in the gym so I couldn’t have had better preparation for the fight. It’s been perfect.”
Queally has been a key component of Conor McGregor’s famous midnight training sessions at SBG, and the Waterford native is adamant that working alongside fighters of that calibre has left him in top shape for this weekend.
“I’m very fortunate to have training partners of that quality. It’s been myself, Conor, Gunni and Artem duking it out over the last six weeks. That’s the training group I’m in and you couldn’t ask for three better people,” Queally said.
“I wouldn’t trade any of them for anyone else. That’s not bullshit, that’s the truth. I’ve felt myself jumping up several levels over the last few months because of training with those guys. This is undoubtedly going to be the best version of me there’s even better for this fight.”
Queally has already competed for some of the biggest promotions in the game outside the UFC, including Cage Warriors and EFC. However, he’s confident of catching the UFC’s attention in 2016.
His progress has been halted by fluctuating between divisions. The cut to lightweight took its toll, as evidenced by the fact that his two defeats to date came in the 155lbs weight class. He now plans to settle at welterweight, however, and has set himself a target of securing a place in the UFC’s 170lbs division within the next 12 months.
Queally is scheduled to kick off his 2016 campaign by facing English fighter Nathan Jones for British promotion BAMMA in Dublin, before heading to South Africa a couple of months later to take on a yet-to-be-announced opponent.
“By this time next year I expect to be fighting in the UFC. I’ve got this fight coming up in Italy, then I’m fighting on BAMMA in the 3Arena in February. I’m probably going to fight for EFC in Cape Town in April as well. At that stage I’ll be 9-2, undefeated at welterweight and I think I’ll be looking good if the UFC are coming back to Dublin in 2016.
“I do expect to be signed [by the UFC] by this time next year. When I started training in MMA, the UFC wasn’t a thing for Irish fighters. It was barely even a pipe dream. They didn’t do events in Ireland and rarely even came to Europe, so it was so hard to get in.
“It’s still hard to get in but since Conor started doing what he’s doing, it’s still a dream but a realistic dream. It’s a very attainable dream for someone like myself, who’s working hard and has his eye on the prize. It feels close now and I’m confident it will come. ”
