Conor McGregor's former training partner James Gallagher stunned the MMA fraternity after he reportedly refused to show up for his fight.

It's been a crazy few years for the 29-year-old. After a successful debut back in 2015, Gallagher was quick to rise up the ranks and was backed to become a world champion. At the age of 20, the 'Strabanimal' announced himself on the world stage when he took on the younger brother of MMA legend Lyoto Machida, Chinzo Machida, at Bellator 180 in 2017.

Gallagher would go on to submit the Brazilian in the first-round. Just months later, though, he was handed his first professional defeat against Ricky Bandejas. The SBG Ireland fighter then went unbeaten in his next four fights, before eventually being submitted by Patchy Mix in 2021. After a two-year hiatus, he returned to the win column against James Gonzalez, but suffered his third career loss to Leandro Higo last year.

The 29-year-old defeated Fabricio Soares earlier this year, and was scheduled to return to the cage on Thursday at ACA 194 against ex-UFC fighter Ali AlQaisi - but the showdown never took place. AlQaisi made the walk to the Octagon and addressed those in attendance and explained the fight would not be taking place due to Gallagher's displeasure with the backstage conditions.

In a post uploaded to X - formerly known as Twitter - Irish MMA journalist Sean Sheehan wrote: "James Gallagher fight is cancelled." In a separate post, he wrote: "Gallagher's opponent, Ali AlQaisi, comes out and says Gallagher refused to fight because he didn't like the warm-up area. Be interested to hear what James has to say."

Gallagher had previously faced off with his opponent and was seemingly set to fight. At the time of writing, the 29-year-old has yet to comment on Thursday's situation.

During a previous interview with Bloody Elbow, Gallagher detailed about how his tough mindset developed through being around McGregor. "When I was coming up on the scene, sparring and training with Conor, it's unbelievable just to see someone with that mindset and skill set," he said.

"There's stuff that I've learnt, not just skill-wise but more mentality and training, how you prepare for big moments and handling yourself under pressure. He deals with it at the highest magnitude, so if you can pick little bits up along the way, that's probably the biggest thing I've learned, how to hold yourself at a high mentality when everything else goes wrong. I remember the first time he fought Dustin Poirier, he broke his thumb three weeks before, I remember going to the hospital with Gunnar Nelson.

"To see how much stuff was going wrong in such a big moment, and how you can keep that mindset. Banging your thumb out three weeks out during your hardest rounds, that's detrimental to your mindset going into a big event. There was a lot of learning, and it was good to be around."

Tom Aspinall will take on Ciryl Gane on October 25 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. The pair's clash will headline the UFC 321 pay-per-view card. Alexander Volkov and Jailton Almeida will also compete at the event - seemingly for the number one heavyweight contender spot.

A light-heavyweight showdown between Aleksandar Rakic and Azamat Murzakanov has also been announced, while Mitch Raposo will take on Azat Maksum. The co-main event sees Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern going head-to-head for the vacant women's strawweight title. The broadcast of the preliminary card will be available for TNT Sports subscribers to watch on TNT Sports 4 and on TNT Sports Box Office for anyone to watch in the UK and Ireland from 5pm (12pm ET / 9am PT / 11am CT).

The main card is scheduled to get underway at 7pm UK time (2pm ET / 11am PT / 1pm CT). In the main event, expect Gane to make the walk to the cage first at around 9:30pm UK time (4:30pm ET / 1:30pm PT / 3:30pm) with Aspinall to follow immediately after. The timings of all fights are subject to change and will depend on how long the undercard takes to complete. Fans in the UK and Ireland can watch the main card exclusively live on TNT Sports Box Office at a cost of £19.99.

Conor McGregor protege leaves opponent alone in cage after REFUSING to fight - The Mirror