Liam McGeary made a triumphant return to the Bellator cage last evening at Bellator 173, but his victory didn't come without a little scare as he was dropped in the first round of his fight with Brett McDermott.

Speaking backstage with reporters after the fight, McGeary described the feeling of being hit by McDermott as like "being hit by shovel". Regardless, McGeary prevailed after a doctor's stoppage in round two and shortly after the bout was over, it was announced inside the cage that his next fight would be fellow Englishman, Linton Vassell.

Speaking about the fight backstage, McGeary said that there was currently no ill feeling between the pair and that for the moment at least, it was all about two men competing. 

"I hope so [it gets me back into the title picture], I'm going to start calling people out after I deal with Linton Vassell," McGeary said. "Linton Vassell has been on a tear. There's no denying that, he's 3-0 in his last few fights and he's been doing his thing.

"I like Linton--I've got nothing against the guy, but I always knew this was going to happen. We're in the same division, friend, or no friend, we can still punch each other in the face and I'll still buy him a beer afterwards. There's no animosity here."

McGeary then proceeded to reiterate the fact he and Vassell were friends and that for minute at least, he had no plans of creating any tension between the pair of them. That said, McGeary wouldn't deny the fact that things could get a little more interesting between them when the fight draws closer.

"It is competition," McGeary said. "I mean sometimes the competition can boil over and tempers flare--I mean, who knows, a few weeks out from the fight he might call me a prick or I might call him a prick, we don't know. But as far as I'm [concerned], right now at this very second, I have no animosity against the dude in the build up to the fight.

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"It's an all English affair and it makes so much sense--it wouldn't make any sense having this fight in America. This fight needs to happen in London, alongside all my other England brothers, and all my friends can come and see it and everything. It's a fight in London, something I've always dreamed of doing."

While happy with the prospect of taking on Vassell, McGeary wasn't quite so happy when talking about the potential of having Ryan Bader join Bellator MMA. The Englishman was far from impressed with the news it was likely to happen.

"Another f*cking boring wrestler?" McGeary said, "Well, whatever you know, it's another top name ranked whatever he is in the world. Bring him in, it's all the more the welcome you know. It's just more of the same game than he [Phil Davis] plays you know. 

"Oh well, I guess I just have to get my wrestling boots back on you know," McGeary said with a smile.