James Gallagher explains his side of the story behind his bizarre fight cancellation

Former Bellator fighter James Gallagher detailed his side of his story for his unique fight cancellation.

Gallagher was booked to fight UFC veteran Ali AlQaisi at ACA 194 last Thursday. It was a highly anticipated fight on the card. But AlQiaisi went into the cage and revealed that Gallagher left the arena because he wasn’t happy with his warm-up area.

Now, a week since the incident, Gallagher detailed why he canceled the fight, and all the shady things ACA did all fight week.

“I get into the venue and go up to this room where there’s no mats, no nothing. And all the blue corner are in the room,” Gallagher said on the “Energized Show” (via MMAJunkie). “So, you couldn’t swing a cat in it. Then I text the head (of ACA) and said, ‘Listen, I need mats.’ They then tell me that my fight has now moved from 5pm to 9pm that night. I’m like, ‘All right, sweet, it is what it is. I’m here to fight, it’s all good.'”

Gallagher claims the promoter told him to go back to the hotel and come back in a couple of hours. Once he was supposed to be back, the warm-up area was supposed to be sorted.

Once James Gallagher got back to the hotel, he said ACA then called him back, saying his fight was moved again.

Gallagher then had to rush back to the arena, and to his surprise, the warm-up area hadn’t improved.

James Gallagher claims he couldn’t warm up properly

“As I lay down to have a nap, they’re going, ‘The fights have now moved faster,” James Gallagher said. “You have to get back here now within ten minutes to get your hands wrapped.’ So I’m sitting there, full belly, after they told me that I wouldn’t be on for another four or five hours. “I make the way over. Go into the change rooms, still no mats in there with f*cking 50 people in this little room where you couldn’t move around with nothing.

“Everybody’s wrapping hands, there’s chairs around, all this kind of thing. So, we wrap the hands and text them going, Listen, is there a place here for mats? Or even just a spot where I can move around in? I wasn’t looking to have flowers and chocolate there kind of thing. Do you know what I mean? I was just looking for somewhere suitable to get stretched. To get mobilized, to get warmed up, and get ready to fight.”

James Gallagher still planned to fight until someone high up in ACA started getting into his teammate’s face.

“So after that, the team just decided to message my coach back home and they were like, ‘Listen, James, you’re not fighting. This is not happening. They’ve f*cked you around all day, f*cked you around all day yesterday. And it just cannot happen like this.’ You’re a professional fighter. You’ve been around the block, and you’re not coming over here to get caught cold. And to go out there to fight one of their boys who has a room to warm up in,” Gallagher concluded.

Gallagher is 13-3 as a pro and coming off a submission win over Fabricio Soares.