“He’s going to get stiffened in about a minute and a half “

James Gallagher is gearing up for a world title eliminator fight in only his eight professional outing this Friday night in South Dakota.

The Strabanimal is currently 7-0, but is coming off the back of a lengthy lay-off. A knee injury ruled him out of his first headliner fight at Bellator 187 in Dublin, following on from this he injured his hand and again was forced out of a headline bout, this time at Bellator 196. So the Tyrone man will be itching to go this weekend in Sioux Falls. A win should guarantee Gallagher a crack at the Bellator bantamweight title. At only 21-year-old he could become one of the youngest world champions in MMA history. The youngster's meteoric rise is similar to that of his SBG team mate Conor McGregor. Ahead of his fight this weekend Gallagher spoke to MMA Junkie. When asked about his team mates upcoming fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov, The Strabanimal gave a bold prediction.

"He’s going to get stiffened in about a minute and a half." Said Gallagher.

Gallagher of course is going to be biased given his close relationship with the Notorious. However, he feels that Khabib is going to make a mistake rushing in for a take-down, and that will give McGregor the opening he needs.

"He’s going to rush in and try to get a hold of Conor," Gallagher said. He continued, "You can’t fire sloppy shots to try to close the distance. He’ll take one clean shot on the chin, and he’ll hit the floor."

The Strabanimal is gearing up for a fight this weekend that could determine whether or not he can crossover into the mainstream like his SBG counterpart. He has to get through Ricky Bandejas first whose record of 10-1 is not to be sniffed at. Once he gets through that then he can look to become Ireland's second legitimate world MMA champion.