James Gallagher says he nearly gave up on MMA during his time off.
SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota — James Gallagher had to battle hard to make it back to the cage.
The Bellator contender has been out of action since June 2017’s Bellator NYC, where he defeated Chinzo Machida via stoppage. He suffered a devastating knee injury late last year and a hand injury in April, cancelling two fights total.
After staying rather active throughout his seven-fight, undefeated MMA career, the Irishman and Conor McGregor teammate found it difficult to sit out for 14 months.
“It’s been hard, it’s been tough. It’s been the lowest of the lows,” Gallagher told BloodyElbow.com at Bellator 204 open workouts on Wednesday. “I’ve climbed straight back up. There were days I felt like going, ‘F-ck this, is this even worth it anymore?’ I was that low.”
Gallagher injured his LCL and PCL, which required surgery last October. For a while, it limited his movement — and simply things he could do around the house — and even took away some of his pride.
“When you’re just 20 years old, and your mom has to put on your socks and your girlfriend has to wash you, because I couldn’t move my leg — any move made my knee be in a big, serious pain — it’s not very nice, it’s embarrassing,” Gallagher said. “You’re trying to be the man of the house, and you just need help. You can’t do anything yourself. I couldn’t tie my own shoelaces, I couldn’t walk to the shop. If my parents were at work, and my girlfriend was at work, then I couldn’t do nothing. I could just hobble to the kitchen to get myself a little bit of grub.
“I had the world at my feet. I fought in Madison Square Garden, the pinnacle of the fight game. I was about to headline my home show, and boom, it was taken from underneath me.”
Gallagher is set to face Ricky Bandejas on Friday night at Bellator 204 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Instead of giving the sport up at a young age of 21, he opted to continue fighting — and so far, that’s a decision he doesn’t seem to regret.
“At the end of that day, I was going, ‘F-cking damn right it was worth every bit of it,’” Gallagher said. “I kept my head focused, I kept strong, pushed through it all, battled all the injuries. Everyone loved to see me down — everyone was standing on me when I was on the rock bottom. Now I’m here, and they’re all running. I drop down a weight class, and the champ goes running back up to 145 (pounds).”
Gallagher is making his bantamweight debut at Bellator 204. Though he seemed a little undersized at featherweight, that’s a decision he says is mostly based on the title picture at 135 pounds.
“They offered me, ‘Have one fight, then you get the title shot,’” he said. “I’ll do all the weight classes. I’ll even go down another one, and go back up. I’ll do all three.”
Interestingly, Bellator bantamweight champion Darrion Caldwell is moving up to featherweight for a non-title fight against Noad Lahat in the same card’s main event. Caldwell said during fight week that he plans to fight in both weight classes and, should he also win the featherweight title, defend both titles, but Gallagher isn’t so sure about that.
Gallagher expects Caldwell will stay at 145 pounds and eventually vacate his current title, leaving room for Gallagher to fight for the vacant title later this year.
“He’s gone running. This is no collision course. It would’ve been if he had a set of balls and stood his ground and stood with his belt, but he’s not. He’s going, ‘Nah, I don’t want that, I’m gone.’ And I’m going, ‘See, after this, I’m taking your belt.’ And that’s the way it is, Dublin at the end of the year, it’s me for the belt.
“He’s an old man now. He’s 30 odd years of age. Your body doesn’t work the way it used to. I can’t see him being able to come back down. And he hasn’t got a set of nuts to come back down. As soon as I dropped down, he was like, ‘I need 50,000 Irish fans to want me to come to Ireland to see me fight.’ He doesn’t even have 50,000 American fans want to see him fight in his own country; how does he expect 50,000 Irish fans to want to see him over here? He’s got 50,000 Irish fans wanting to see him get his head caved in and me take his belt. That’s what he got.”
It took many hours of patience, dedication, and hard work, but “The Strabanimal” is back, and he says he’s back better than ever.
“I watched them win, took inspirations from their wins, and it filled me,” Gallagher he said of his fellow fighters. “I took inspiration from their performances, from the work they put in to get their wins, and I climbed back up. Now I’m here, and they’re saying f-ck all. They’re not opening their mouths at all. I’m here, I’m back, and they’re all f-cked.”