James Gallagher says he punched Mike Kimbel in backstage altercation, explains why

This morning, Bellator bantamweight prospects James Gallagher and Mike Kimbel came to blows backstage at Bellator London media day.

Speaking to MMA Junkie shortly thereafter, Gallagher gave his take on how this chaotic scene was sparked.

Apparently, it all started with some comments about Gallagher’s mother.

“He’s 2-4 or something like this, but he was talking a lot of (expletive) about me,” Gallagher said. “He was saying my name all the time, running me down, saying a lot of hateful, annoying things. But that’s cool. Say what you want about me. I understand the fight game.

“… Then he took it a bit too far and took a screenshot of a picture off of my Instagram. I posted up a picture of me and my mum coming to visit me in Dublin. I brought her out for dinner, and we got a picture outside the restaurant. I was like, ‘Such a good weekend seeing my mother.’ And he screenshotted it and put it up and goes, ‘She should have swallowed the sperm cells that have made this.’”

Gallagher said this comment was reason enough for him to clock Kimbel backstage.

“For me as a young man, I don’t disrespect women like that,” Gallagher said. “That’s the lowest of the lowest. I would never disrespect any grown woman, nevermind my mother. Not only has he disrespected a woman that I know, he disrespected a woman that I love to bits. A woman that has made me the man I am.

“And that was it. I didn’t say nothing else. I just left it at that. And he asked last month, could he come to Dublin. I said, ‘Yeah, of course you can come to Dublin. You might not get back out, though. You might not.’ Might’ve, might not, whatever. But when I saw him today for the first time, I didn’t say nothing else to him. I just walked up and smacked him with a left hook on the chin, and that was that. Don’t speak about my mother again.”

If this all sounds like it might lead to a fight between Gallagher and Kimbel in the future, think again.

“I will never ever fight Mike Kimbel in an MMA contest – ever,” Gallagher said. “We can leave it at that now. … If I’m somewhere, don’t come. Don’t come. Don’t be around me. Don’t say nothing about me. Get on your way, do your thing, and that’s it. There is no revenge that can satisfy me about what he said about my mother.

“… The biggest (regret) is that I didn’t get him in a room on my own and that there was people here able to hold him back and hold me back. That’s the only regret that I’ve got. Nothing else. He’s a lucky, lucky man – a kid. A stupid little kid. He’s lucky.”

What do you think of these comments from James Gallagher?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 11/21/2019.