This Irish MMA Fighter May Be The Next Conor McGregor

This young Irish MMA fighter is being dubbed as the next Conor McGregor.

James “The Strabanimal” Gallagher is a 23-year-old Bellator MMA fighter. Surely, he has what it takes to fight inside the cage but that’s not what makes him special. For quite some time, Gallagher has been earning comparisons to his Straight Blast Gym teammate and UFC star McGregor. And even though they fight nothing alike, Gallagher is still considered as the closest thing to “The Notorious.”

Both McGregor and Gallagher are heavily tattooed with wild animals etched into their chests. They are also both loud, extremely confident, and talk with identical Irish accents. However, Gallagher is a jiu jitsu specialist who dominates his opponents mostly on the ground. McGregor on the other hand, is lethal striker with an undeniable knockout power.

But according to The Telegraph's combat correspondent Gareth A. Davies, McGregor has had his limitations exposed while Gallagher, one of Bellator's top prospects, is already displaying greater attributes of what a modern day mixed martial artist is.

"He's got the same incredible levels of self-confidence and has grown up in the masterful shadow of Conor McGregor's rise," Davies told Business Insider.

Davies also noted that Gallagher was just “a 14-year-old boy when he first met Conor. The influences are undeniable. But he is still his own person.”

John Kavanagh, McGregor’s long-time trainer and Gallagher’s trainer as well, agrees that the young Irishman really got some McGregor in him. However, he also emphasized that among all the people, he is the one who sees their significant differences.

"I can see why the media compares him to Conor McGregor, but I guess it is lazy. I see them every day so I see the differences. I hear he's a Conor impersonator, that he's this, that. At this stage, just buy a ticket and come along and see what he's about,” Kavanagh said of Gallagher.

When Gallagher suffered the first loss of his professional career in devastating fashion against Ricky Bandejas at Bellator 204, McGregor himself gave him some piece of advice.

According to Gallagher, he knows what he did wrong at the said fight and McGregor told him as well. He admitted that he “was hyped out of his mind walking into that fight and he wasn't clear-headed” during the fight.

Undeniably, Gallagher is fortunate to have a former two-time UFC champ along with him as he equip himself with the right tools to become an MMA superstar.