JAMES GALLAGHER RECORDED an impressive first-round victory in the headline Bellator bout at the 3Arena on Saturday night.
The Strabane native dispatched Kansas City’s Steven Graham with a rear-naked choke to get back to winning ways after suffering the first loss of his professional career last August.
The 22-year-old Straight Blast Gym fighter finished the bout on the 2.30 mark of the first round after dominating his opponent from the outset.
That victory now brings his professional record to 8-1.
💪🇮🇪😳@StrabanimalMMA is victorious in his return to the Bellator cage with a rear naked choke at #Bellator217.
— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) February 23, 2019
Watch the main event in the 🇺🇸 at 9/8c on @ParamountNet & simulcast on @DAZN_USA. pic.twitter.com/NgYWT2AsgI
Fighters from the Straight Blast Gym camp featured in all four bouts on the main card, including Richie Smullen and Peter Queally.
Queally fought in the co-main event of the evening, where he lost out to Myles Price after a tight contest which resulted in a narrow win for Price via split decision.
Meanwhile Smullen and Kiefer Crosbie both earned victories in their respective bouts.
Smullen out-gunned Adam Gustab in the opening fight of the main card while Crosbie overcame Daniel Olejniczak with a rear naked choke.
Bellator is widely regarded as the second-largest MMA show behind the UFC.
Bellator 217 Dublin results:
Main card
- Bantamweight Main Event: James Gallagher def. Steven Graham – Via round 1 RNC submission
- Lightweight Co-Main Event: Myles Price def. Peter Queally – Via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)
- Welterweight bout: Kiefer Crosbie def. Daniel Olejniczak – Via 1st round RNC submission
- Featherweight bout: Richie Smullen vs. Adam Gustab – Via unanimous decision (30-27×2, 30-26)
Preliminaries
- Middleweight bout: Charlie Ward def Jamie Stephenson – Via 1st round KO
- Lightweight bout: Paul Redmond def. Charlie Leary – Via unanimous decision (29-28×3)
- Welterweight bout: Richard Kiely def.Mickael Bucher – Via 1st round KO
- Welterweight bout: Walter Gahadza def. Ruben Crawford – VIA 1st round TKO
- Flyweight bout: Ryan Curtis def. Luis Gonzalez – Via round 1 TKO
- Women’s featherweight bout: Leah McCourt def.Hatice Ozyurt – Via TKO (doctor stoppage) after round 1
- Women’s featherweight bout: Olga Rubin def. Iony Razafiarison – Via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
- Middleweight bout: Will Fleury def. Shaun Taylor – Via 2nd round RNC submission
- Welterweight bout:Alfie Davies def. Daniele Scatizzi – Via unanimous decision (30-27, 2×29-28)
- Lightweight bout: Chris Duncan def. Sam Slater – Via 1st round TKO
- Featherweight bout: Dylan Logan def. Andrew Murphy- Via 1st round armbar
- Swing bout: Featherweight bout: George Courtney def. Ian Cleary – Via 3rd round guillotine
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2 tries from Coombes in the second row in 15 odd minutes. Start him v France. He’s clearly good enough and if Ireland aren’t going to back youth now when will they..
@Jim Demps: any online commentators who disagree are holding back Irish rugby
@Jim Demps: if you think that is going to happen you are fully delusional. A decent player, can’t be near international standards yet.
@Timmy O’Toole: 100%
@Jim Demps: see now lads ye’ve upset some people with all that talk of that Leinster lad. Ye need to be more considerate of other people’s feelings.
@Paddy: you talking to me?
@Jim Demps: God no, how could you be “lads”?
@Jim Demps: Make him Captain of Ireland now!!!
@Jim Demps: A wee bit soon for both Coombes and Baird. However if both continue to develop at their present rate it is only a matter of time till they get full caps. Coombes, Doris and Leavey would make a tasty Irish back row.
@Jim Demps: stick him the irish side, it’s not like munster will give him too much game time.
@Jim Demps: well said Jim, reading the comments about Baird this morning, a lot of poster had him better than james Ryan. Coombes is a good player , constantly gets over the gain line and a good line out operator. Throw in Casey, who was superb, JOS and Nash. The Munster academy are producing finally
@Jim Demps: Yes but Munster are not Leinster are they?
@Patrick O Connell: Fineen has been better for a while but not crossing the whitewash so didn’t get the big headlines. Fair play to Coombes, been on the fringe for a while. Big unit, as useful in the back row
@Tom Reilly: that’s a nasty looking back row
@Christiaan Theron: I see you’ve been studying your map
@Tim Magner: There is great talent coming through in Irish rugby but we need big talented lads in the back row to compete with the likes of England and S.A..
@Jim Demps: jimbo, he only scored 2. Bench v France
@Tom Reilly: exactly, Coombes to me plays like a saffer, he’s a brute of a carrier. Some people like flash but as you say v the physically bigger teams, sometimes power v power is the way to go
@Eoghan O’Leary: Has the penny dropped yet?
@Isa: Occasionally there is sense, then it goes too far.
@Eoghan O’Leary: Eoghan this isn’t actually about Gavan, it’s about 2 silly billys called Harry and Noel
@Christiaan Theron: you are correct, one are the champions and win week in week out the other hasn’t won a thing in 10 years
@Chris Mc: Given that’s the case and Leinster are clearly a superior team to Munster at the moment, don’t you think that it’s sad that many Leinster supporters are so jealous of Munster and can’t be happy with their lot?
@Timmy O’Toole: nail on head
@Jim Demps: Coombes good enough but not Baird ?
@Anton Phelan: ah jaysus Anton, theyre already after sagging off eoghan
@Timmy O’Toole:I give you an analogy Timmy All the young kids are into Liverpool ,their older brothers are into Man City but none are into Man Utd,for all their past glories its not relevant they haven’t been a competitive team in years ,believe me nobody is talking about Munster
@rugbyanbeer: You are.
@rugbyanbeer: the thing is though that they are, if you look at the likes of Noel, Harry and Chris they are either commenting on Munster articles or else negatively comparing Munster to Leinster on Leinster articles
@Timmy O’Toole: well I cannot understand the mentality of getting greater glee from someone’s team struggling as opposed to just getting joy outta your own teams success
@rugbyanbeer: agree with you fully, 3 saddos
@rugbyanbeer: my father,me, my brothers and sister, my son are support Liverpool. It started in the late 60’s and continues today. It’s called tradition. We all support Munster first
@Chris Mc: just like Ireland did with Ryan so ???
@Jim Demps: I love Coombes as a player. Never said anything wrong about him. He’s young and strong….get him in there. I used to play for the same club as him.
@Timmy O’Toole: silly billy
@Timmy O’Toole: would you stop leinster jealous of munster?
@Jim Lynch: Ryan is probably the best player to play for munster since Paulie
@Timmy O’Toole: I was answering rubbish aimed at leinster. instead of praising how well a very good young secondrow played jimbo has a pop at baird. Personally I’d fast track the 2 young munster secondrows and baird into the irish setup. Move Toner, kleyn and Dilane aside and see if one of those 3 step up. (Dilane might step up) but he needs to do so soon as the others will pass him very soon otherwise.
Terrible cheap cowardly punch from Lousi. Hope he gets a long ban. Well done Munster in terrible conditions. Coombes was a revelation when he came on. O’Byrne and Hanrahan were hugely influential.
@Tom Reilly: Casey was class as well.
@Paddy: Solid game from the kid. Bit indecisive at times, maybe lacked runners. Probably not challenging Murray yet but the clear no. 2
@Mark Dooley: He’s barely had a minute to play but even still I’d say he’s more than just challenging, won’t be long before he’s 1 .
Munster’s future back row – Coombes, Hodnett and O’Sullivan – has a nice balance to it
I see Noel has rented out a lovely spot in Munster fans heads. Seriously though, Baird should be considered for the French game as a travelling reserve even but he will be on the Summer tour to Australia at least.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL: baird was one of the 4 development players so he’s very much in farrells thinking. I’d say he’s a shoo in for the Australia tour. For the rest of the year it’ll be interesting to see how leinster use him though, if he’s not in the 23 v saracens then it’s very hard to be hammering the Irish management if they don’t select him
@#JUSTICE4NOEL: I think you’re right to row back from your comment yesterday Noel but ya he is a serious prospect
@Timmy O’Toole: And if he doesn’t start (and actually Captain) all 3 Lions matches there’s no justice in the World, he’s literally that good.
What’s the deal with Ryle doing literally every single Munster and Leinster game lately??
@Jamie Bent: I’d hate him as a tmo in a munster game!
@Tim Magner: Him or Reggie Corrigan
@Jamie Bent: He’s the main reason I watched it on TG4.
@Mark Dooley: the poor man will be in depression after the BP try. He was in the commentators box waving the red card for haley ‘taking out’ shingler until toland tried to talk some sense into him. And he was worse last week v zebre, a forearm to the face according to old ryle was something and nothing
@Tim Magner: Munster vs the world Tim. Chips on both shoulders.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL: has always been the way, bitter is better
@Tim Magner: it was pretty satisfying when Munster got that Bonus point. Ryle had the game written off as a poor effort against 13 players.. he is the worst actually no that Ger Gilroy followed closely by vyle
@PScald: I got a bit of satisfaction out of his obvious disappointment anyway
The sending off had a major effect on that game. We badly need Kleyn back to ad power to the second row. At 17-3 Coombes is still a bit light for international or indeed top club lock. Excellent prospect as is young Ahearne with the U20s
We’ll take the 5 points and move on.
@TL55: I think he’s a 6 all day. Trying to fit in pom, jod, beirne and Coombes is going to be an issue. They might be tempted to play beirne and snyman but I’d go kleyn/snyman all day for the big games. We’re going to have a bloody big pack anyway
@Tim Magner: An interesting dilemma over the next couple of seasons for Munster to manage. Similar to Leinster in the back row and probably at 10 over the coming seasons. Doubt either side will be complaining too much. Exciting times ahead.
@JJ’s Wattage: exactly, theyre great problems to have. Ulster are going to run into issues keeping all the outside backs they are producing happy with game time as well. A very wise man said to me earlier that ireland are going to have to bring back the wolfhound to get a lot of these guys some decent international experience
@Tim Magner: Yeah it’s a drawback to having just the 4 professional teams, log jams are almost inevitable at one time or another. Having said that the positives of having just the 4 teams far outweigh the negatives. The wolfhounds is an interesting shout. Are the rest of the six Nations teams still playing “A” international fixtures? I always thought it was good to have that stepping stone from club level to international. For it to be truly affective it would need to be taken seriously by all the nations though. Can’t see the IRB wanting to fit more fixtures into the calender with their attempts to streamline the global season.
@JJ’s Wattage: I think on non world cup or lions tour years, playing v Georgia, Romania or Spain etc would be a win win for everybody. Say if it was an u25 team touring Europe every second year. Just look at will Connors as an example, the lad is near enough international standard but to make that leinster back row for the really big games is crazy competitive
@Tim Magner: yeah I like the sound of that. As good as these young guys are, and they are very good, it’s extremely difficult to break in to a senior starting 15. Connors, Penney, JOD, Wycherley, Baird, Balacoune, Keenan, Harry Byrne, Frawley and so many more are right on the edge of making a serious breakthrough. Opportunity is everything. Haven’t thought of playing tier 2 nations before. Could also be a good pathway for emerging homegrown coaches to hone their skills at international level.
Wycherley suffers a serious injury from a cowardly punch. And yet many posters ignore this. The great Munster righteous indignant poster Jim Demps is more concerned about petty issues concerning Baird than he is worrying about the state of the garden while the house is burning down.
@Tom Reilly: Hi Tom, I don’t think it was that serious, Wycherley took it well, like most West Cork men would.
You might have missed this but Jim is a Baird fan, he was just highlighting how clueless Noel and Harry are
@Tom Reilly: I’m a Leinster fan and I totally agree with what Jim said. Baird is good, but capping in this Six Nations ain’t gonna happen.
@Tom Reilly: it was hardly a serious injury, wycherley came back after the cut was cleaned up. What was worthy of uproar was the big 2nd row barely caused jj to flinch, I think he walked off in embarrassment
@Aidan Prior: Well Aidan I’M Leinster supporter too and I would expect more from Demps who is one of the more erudite posters here.
@Tom Reilly: what are you talking about? “I would expect more of Demps” what are you? His teacher or something? Ridiculous carry on.
@Timmy O’Toole: Timmy this whole scenario has made Coombes who I always rated. But I hate this us versus them carry on here at times.
@Tom Reilly: I couldn’t agree more with you Tom. It really turns me off the 42 but to be fair I do think think it’s only a few knuckle draggers
@Dave O Keeffe: Jesus Dave you’re some craic. I am not his teacher but I am a retired teacher. Now you have to admit Jim Demps is more than your normal poster.
@Tom Reilly: the question still has to be asked, what right do you have to expect anything of another poster? Jim was poking fun at J4N for his comments on the Leinster game yesterday about how a 20 year old should be started against France because of his performance in a Pro14 game during the 6 nations. He was poking fun in an inoffensive and clever way, I’m sure he’s devastated to have disappointed you though.
@Timmy O’Toole: Yet Baird was literally just picked in the Irish squad. Yikes….
Ease past???????