James Gallagher put on a hell of a show for the Belfast crowd last evening at Bellator 173, but after it was all said and done, there was only one thing everyone was left talking about--his callout of AJ Mckee. 

Shortly after dealing with Kirill Medvedovsky in the first round of their co-main event bout, Gallagher was asked inside the cage on the microphone who he wanted next. Gallagher seized the moment and proceeded to call AJ Mckee a "p*ssy" and then challenged him to face him at the Bellator card on May 19 in London, England.

Speaking later backstage after the fight, Gallagher was asked during a scrum with media at the event, why AJ McKee was the man who he called out. 
Gallagher once again seized the moment and revealed an exchange the two had back in Dublin in December before Gallagher's fight with McKee's teammate, Anthony "Pretty Boy" Taylor. Gallagher revealed the conversation came about after the two had been involved in a confrontation at Gallagher's SBG Ireland gym. 

"He came up to me and said he wants no beef, because in my gym I told him he's f*cking next," Gallagher said. "He walks up to me and says 'Hey James, I don't want no beef, let's be cool. I told Anthony to stop all that in your gym' and he told Anthony to apologize to me--which he did. So, I was like, fair play to you, I'll be friendly with someone that is friendly to me, but we're not friends.

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"I'll be friendly to everybody here, but make no mistake about you, it takes a lot of work to be my friend--that's the way I've always been. So, he was trying to be my friend and he knocked into my hotel room after the press conference and he started telling me about Anthony's gameplan and how he's going to throw a left, bang a jab, and then throw a left hook, and then try for an overhand right. I was looking at him and I was like oh my god, this fella is an absolute p*ssy. He's meant to be in his corner--that's his boy."

The man from Strabane then explained the difference between himself and McKee and why he'd never even contemplate doing the same to one of his teammates. He then also recalled how McKee spoke about his teammate, Conor McGregor.

"If I'm cornering one of my teammates, they're my friends and I got their back until the end," Gallagher explained. "He told me all this and within the same thing, he says this thing here, he goes 'do you train with Conor McGregor?' and I said 'yeah I do', he then goes 'I would f*ck that guy up'. I said to him 'no you wouldn't, he would knock you out in about ten seconds'. He looked at me and he was like f*ck, he just knew in his mind, in the way he looked at me, he thought this guy is real, he's not, he was expecting me to bitch out.

"I was like, f*ck off these are my friends, this is my team you're talking about--don't ever, ever talk about my team like that. Say what you want about me, but don't ever, ever talk about my team, my friends or my family like that. Do you know what I mean, that's when he knew he f*cked up."

Gallagher then went to clarify he'd never been given a contract to fight, McKee, but that if Bellator put one in front of him, he'd sign it right away.