Cursed Fight? Bellator Dublin Loses Gallagher-Ellenor

For the second time in four+ months, the main event of Bellator Dublin has been altered. Bellator MMA announced that the planned bout between James Gallagher and Cal Ellenor is off due to an injury to the former.

Bellator released a response to MMA Fighting’s inquiry on the situation, stating:

“Due to an undisclosed injury, James Gallagher will no longer compete on Feb. 22 in Dublin, and his bout with Cal Ellenor has been removed from the card. A women’s featherweight matchup featuring Ireland’s Leah McCourt taking on Judith Ruis of Germany will now headline Bellator’s highly anticipated return to 3Arena,” the statement read.

Gallagher (10-1) and Ellenor (8-2) were originally set to face inside the 3Arena in Dublin on February 22. Their initial fight back in September was called off following a complication on Ellenor’s side. Gallagher ended up fighting on the card anyway, beating Roman Salazar via submission in the first round.

Gallagher, who is currently on a three-fight win streak, posted the following on Instagram:

“I am absolutely heart broken. I am out of my fight due to a back injury that has been going on for over 2 weeks now. I always take the advice of my team and coaches. I will get stuck into my rehab and be back in there soon. And no I’m not letting him off the hook, he’s next. 3rd time unlucky for him. I’m made in adversity this is just another experience on this mad road I’m on. Thank you for the support as always and sorry let the people who’ve bought tickets and @bellatormma down. I’ll be in there again soon. 🇮🇪💚”

View this post on Instagram

I am absolutely heart broken. I am out of my fight due to a back injury that has been going on for over 2 weeks now. I always take the advice of my team and coaches. I will get stuck into my rehab and be back in there soon. And no I’m not letting him off the hook, he’s next. 3rd time unlucky for him. I’m made in adversity this is just another experience on this mad road I’m on. Thank you for the support as always and sorry let the people who’ve bought tickets and @bellatormma down. I’ll be in there again soon. 🇮🇪💚

A post shared by James gallagher (@strabanimalmma) on Feb 4, 2020 at 5:43am PST

Ellenor will not be getting a replacement opponent, so a new main event was made. Leah McCourt will face off against Judith Ruis. Born in Belfast, McCourt (3-1) is on a three-fight win streak, with two wins in Bellator. Her last fight was a submission-win over Kerry Hughes on the Ireland September card.  Ruis (6-4) is on a two-fight win streak, beating Cinja Kiefer via submission in September. This will be her Bellator MMA debut.

This is not the only bout that had to be altered. On the Bellator 240 side of things, Chris Bungard will be facing Brent Primus in the main event of that card following an LCL tear to Peter Queally.