Ricky Bandejas put his name on the map with an upset win over James Gallagher at Bellator 204, and feels that now the tables have turned after the bantamweight was nearly completely overlooked heading into the bout.
Sioux Falls, SD — Suffice to say, Ricky Bandejas was the man of the hour at Bellator 204. On a card where everything pretty much went according to plan, he was the wrench in the works. The underdog scoring the big upset. With a first round finish of Irish star (and Conor McGregor teammate) James Gallagher, he flat-out stole the show Friday night in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
It was a fight to remind fans how fickle the MMA gods truly are. You want Bellator’s own version of McGregor? Not so fast. Gallagher was making his bantamweight debut on the night, ostensibly to set up a 135lb title fight between himself and champion Darrion Caldwell. Never mind that Caldwell, in the main event of Bellator 204, was himself heading up to featherweight, the weight class Gallagher was dropping down from. Whatever. Point being, Gallagher, 7-0 record in tow, was meeting Bandejas, who was, frankly, supposed to be just another body. Only, no one remembered to tell him that.
On a five fight win streak heading in, Bandejas is now 11-1, and will no doubt get some notice moving forward. The Gallagher fight was Bandejas’ debut in the promotion, and what a debut it was. The build-up to the fight nearly boiled over minutes before it got going, with Gallagher getting a little too close to Bandejas while both were in the cage for the pre-fight introductions. On that topic, Ricky Bandejas told reporters back stage following Bellator 204 that “it didn’t make any sense. You know we’re about to fight in a minute.” He continued, adding that “I have no idea why the hell he was acting like an animal, but we fought a minute later, and look what happened.”
The reaction to his fight immediately after? “Definitely a game changer,” said Bandejas. “Everybody was overlooking me this whole week, prior to this guy; I go out there and get the finish, now everybody is texting and reaching out.”
The bantamweight, now with six straight wins, admitted that he felt disrespected heading in given nearly everyone was overlooking him. “Yeah absolutely. Every post was about the Irish guy, all his fights, and who he is and nothing about me,” he said. “But that’s part of the game, and now the table’s turned.”
Bellator has seen these sort of upsets before. Zach Freeman stunning Aaron Pico in the latter’s pro debut comes to mind. Where Bandejas goes from here remains to be seen, but he’s likely secured himself another solid test moving forward.
Watch the full Bellator 204 post-fight press scrum with Ricky Bandejas above!
