James Gallagher Submits Callum Ellenor in Bellator Milan Headliner

RNC’s for The Strabanimal!@StrabanimalMMA gets another first round submission victory at #BellatorMilan! pic.twitter.com/ONtnB3Wjby

— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) October 3, 2020

After being rescheduled three times, the grudge match between James Gallagher and Callum Ellenor finally went down at Bellator Milan.

It took less than one round for "The Strabanimal" to overcome his opponent thanks to a vicious submission that ended the bitter rivalry in Saturday’s bantamweight headliner at Allianz Cloud in Milan, Italy. Gallagher (11-1) took his opponent on the canvas early in the fight and trapped him in a body lock. Once there, the Irish fighter took his time to expose his opponent's gaps in the grappling. Gallagher teased Ellenor (8-3) with a neck crank before sinking a deep rear-naked choke. "Cal Pacino" tapped at the 4:31 mark in the opening stanza. 

"Give me anyone, everyone, and a big bag of money, and I'll fight any f--kin' one of them. I'm too smart for the [rest of the division]. I've worked hard. I'm in the third main event. I'm 23 years old. Everyone counts me out, but I count myself in every f--kin' time, and that's all that matters," Gallagher said in the post-fight interview before asking for a title shot. "Give me that belt. It's mine.” 

In the co-main event, Charlie Ward (9-4) and Andy Manzolo (23-9) locked horns in the middleweight division. Manzolo looked like he could keep combat the strength of his opponent in the first round, where he landed a takedown and controlled his opponent on the ground. In the second stanza, Ward became more aggressive and imposed his dominant style on his Estonian opponent. After taking his opponent down, the Irish fighter mauled his opponent from the top position for the rest of the stanza. The third round saw the same script repeating itself. Eventually, all three judges rewarded Ward with a unanimous decision for his sixth victory under the Bellator banner.

The first fight on the main card pitted Charlie Leary (17-11-1) against Kiefer Crosbie (8-2) in a 160-pound catchweight. The first and only one round of the battle was a relentless slugfest. Both competitors landed heavy shots from the outset of the bout, with Crosbie taking the lead shortly after. Midway through the round, Leary started connecting heavier than his opponent, taking Crosbie down, where he inflicted some damage on the face of the Irish contender. Referee Todd Anderson looked very close to stopping the action a few seconds before the end of the round, but Crosbie survived to make it back to his corner. Right before the beginning of the second stanza, the referee called the physician to check on the Irish fighter. The physician decided that Crosbie was not fit to continue, and Leary took home a precious TKO victory.