It has been close to two years since we last saw James Gallagher inside the Bellator cage, but that layoff comes to an end this Friday at Bellator 298.
Gallagher (11-2), who had become a bonafide star for the company before injury struggles got in the way, has taken it all in stride.
“I learned a lot, grew a lot. Worked hard, trained a lot. It was challenging, I had a lot of things going on and a lot of things I had to sort out, and a lot of things that I had to do,” he told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview ahead of his return fight, against James Gonzalez. “I went and done it, and now I’m here, fully prepared and ready to go again.”
To hear Gallagher tell it, it sounds as if the time away was a blessing in disguise. That, in fact, is exactly how he feels.
“Yeah absolutely. The way my kind of mindset is, I just take, when stuff happens to you, I take full responsibility for it and use it to grow. So I never have many obstacles, I just use everything to fuel, to get better and to learn from. Anything that happens is always a blessing, and I’m just grateful and blessed to be back here competing and showing off my skills.”
It’s impossible to talk about Gallagher vs. Gonzalez without addressing the fight that would have been. Gallagher was originally booked against Cris “Sunshine” Lencioni this Friday. As is well known by now, Lencioni went into cardiac arrest following a training session, and while his life was saved that day, he has a long road to recovery ahead (for those wishing to help, Lencioni’s family has a GoFundMe set up to aid in his rehabilitation).
Seeing a high-level athlete in their prime come so close to death is certainly a sobering reminder of our mortality, and puts a lot of things in perspective. Gallagher, who had trained with Lencioni in years past, pointed out that it just as easily could have been himself in that situation.
“It could have been me. That could have been me, my mom and my father looking at me like that. The man’s just a young hard working man chasing his dreams.”
“He came here to take away mine from me, and I was trying to take away his from him. We were going to push each other to that level, and we had a good competitive approach to the contest,” Gallagher noted. “It’s absolutely heartbreaking to see. You see little videos online, and to think about what his family’s going through, difficulties, he runs a gym. I remember I trained with him a few years ago when I was in Kansas City, he was telling me his aspirations were for kids, to open up a gym for kids, to make them grow.”
Gallagher recalled that for Lencioni, while he wanted to be the best, wanted to be a world champion, teaching kids “was his aspiration. To be there for kids. To see someone like that, he’s a positive guy, to see him like that is heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking man. Heartbreaking. My thoughts go out to him and his family.”
The show must go on, however. While Lencioni and his family fight their way back from tragedy, Gallagher has his sights set on a new opponent in James Gonzalez.
“They’re very similar games I feel. Cris has more of an MMA approach to it, where James Gonzlaez is more of a jiu-jitsu guy, more like slick submissions rather than the wrestling kind of type Lencioni would have brought,” Gallagher observed. “He brings a tough challenge, he’s a lot better than his record shows. He’s only been beat by very good guys, and unfortunately for him, I’m going to be one of them very good guys.”
To prepare for the fight, Gallagher and his dad spent time training in Thailand. The Irish star expects to return for future fight camps, and certainly found benefits to training in the combat sports hotbed.
“Sunshine, beaches, getting up every day, training two, three times a day. I haven’t done that since I was young, training three times a day,” said Gallagher. “I feel like I’ve had the perfect balance in this camp and I’m looking forward to showing it.”
Of note, James Gallagher returns to featherweight for this fight, his first stop in the weight class since 2017, though there were a few catchweight bouts over the years. But returning to 145 after his run at bantamweight has him feeling stronger again, not that strength was ever really a concern.
“So much stronger. But I never had a strength issue. Best believe it when a grab a hold of them or I get on top of them, ask anyone in the game, my pressure isn’t what it looks like,” Gallagher said regarding the move. “It feels a lot different than it looks like. So the size isn’t really— there’s never a strength advantage. When I was at 145 before, I think I’m 7-0 at 145. When I was amateur I fought 155. I was always the smaller guy coming in. My style is suited to beating the bigger guy. It’s never been a problem.”
“To be honest I’m not sure why I even went to— the bantamweight thing was probably a smart idea at the time, but I want to get big and strong and be fuelled and be an athlete. I feel like an athlete at this weight, I feel like I’m very explosive and very strong and very fit on top of that,” continued Gallagher.
“Where some of that goes when I’m trying to get down to 135,” Gallagher, who would cut 20 pounds in three days to make the bantamweight limit, added. “You don’t be as explosive, and mostly your mindset, you don’t be happy, whereas I’m very, very happy and very grateful to be back in the game. It’s a nice feeling.”
Watch our full interview with Bellator 298’s James Gallagher above. The event takes place this Friday, August 11, 2023 at the Sandord Pentagon in Sioux Falls, SD.
