James Gallagher, known as ‘The Strabanimal’, has his sights firmly fixed on becoming a MMA world champion – and he has enlisted the help of a number of Fermanagh people to help with achieving that goal.

The 23-year-old is originally from Strabane but lived in Dublin for a number of years, where he dedicated himself to his craft prior to moving to Derrylin, where he and his girlfriend have settled.

He still travels to Dublin three or four time a week to train, but also uses Focusekn for his strength and conditioning training while he is put through his boxing work out at Erne Boxing Club under the watchful eye of Sean Crowley.

He said: “I don’t know why I didn’t do it years ago, to be honest.

“My girlfriend is from here, and we moved down just to be close to her family home.

“She works in Belfast, and I’m mostly based in Dublin, so it was just halfway and we decided to make the move,” said Gallagher, who has risen to number six in the Bellator Bantamweight rankings after his recent victory over Callum Ellenor in Milan.

Training

Having made the move to Fermanagh, the key was then to get his training sorted out.

“It was hard to get my feet on the ground when I first moved, but then Ryan [McCluskey] reached out to me and I came in to Focus and I hit it off with him and Cathal [Beacom] straight away.

“I then met Sean Crowley out at Erne Boxing Club, so I have everything I need and more.

“It took that ‘finding my feet’ feeling away from me, so I’m very lucky to have that,” he said.

Gallagher trains in the SBG (Straight Blast Gym) under John Kavanagh most of the week, and says that a plan is then put in place for the work he does in Fermanagh.

“They intertwine with John and he tells them the training that he is putting me through, so they can manage what’s enough and what’s not enough.

“Ryan and Cathal have so much knowledge of sport – not so much my sport, but sport is sport, and a mindset is a mindset.

“There are days you are in that you could be having a dip, but they help drive you on because they have been there,” he explained.

Gallagher fell in love with the sport from an early age.

“I loved fighting, and when I found MMA that was it,” said Gallagher, who was spotted by Kavanagh when he was just 13 and was invited down to train at the renowned gym.

“I used to go to Dublin once every couple of months for training and then I would have trained in Strabane, but once I got to 15 and I was getting better, I started to realise that the work I was getting in Strabane wasn’t enough.”

Gallagher was determined to dedicate his life to the sport and a decision was made that he would go to Dublin to live and train with Kavanagh.

“I wanted to fight and to be in the gym. I didn’t know whether I would be able to make money out of it, or make a career out of it, but I knew if I learnt it I would be able to coach it if it came to that. I just wanted to do it, day in, day out,” he added.

And it is so far, so good as he sits with a professional record of 11 wins and only one defeat, with Gallagher stressing that it is his work ethic that has him where he is.

‘Work ethic’

“It is the work ethic that makes me. It is six days a week, twice a day.

“I would be three or four days a week in Dublin, in with Ryan and Cathal two days a week, and in the boxing club with Sean one day a week,” he added.

And he feels that work that he has been doing in Fermanagh has helped improve him as he stopped Ellenor in the first round.

“I never felt stronger and fitter and, as a fighter, the only concerns you have is gassing out.

“But I knew coming into this one that I will never get to that stage because of the work we did. It was all structured to fit the fight,” he said.

The fighter has been labelled cocky and brash, but he insists that people don’t know the real him.

“People see ten seconds of me talking after a fight and judge me off that, but they don’t know me.

“I just have a great belief in my own ability, and I know the work that I have done.

“Why wouldn’t I be confident?”

And he insists that he will soon reach that target of becoming a world champion.

“I have broken into the top six in the world, and I’m going to be a world champion.

“I think I am two or three fights away from winning the belt, and it is just about sitting down to think what is the best way to get to it.

“That’s the big goal for me,” he concluded.