BBC SPORT 04 NOV 021- Peter Queally never intended to be an MMA fighter. He never intended to dedicate 11 years of his life to a sport he knew nothing about growing up as a kid in a coastal town outside of Waterford in Ireland.
The 32-year-old certainly never intended to be the first Irishman to challenge for a major MMA world title on Irish soil.
“It happened by accident. I wasn’t this nine-year-old kid dreaming of being a fighter,” Queally explained to BBC Sport.
“I didn’t know anything about ground fighting or jiu jitsu. But I was a good striker, young and I wasn’t afraid of anyone.
“That just slowly morphed into a career. All of a sudden I’m in South Africa fighting and I’m getting paid decent money and it’s turned into this career.
“And then it morphed into something else and then something else.”
That something else is a Bellator lightweight world title fight against Patricky ‘Pitbull’ Freire on home turf this Saturday. The 3Arena in Dublin will play host to a historic night as Queally bids to become Bellator’s first Irish champion and the first Irish fighter since Conor McGregor to hold a major world MMA title.
Queally works alongside McGregor at the Straight Blast Gym in Dublin and was training with the two-weight UFC champion before he begged SBG founder John Kavanagh to let him join.
“There was no career when I was starting,” he said.
“There was no path. There was no way of doing it. There were barely any gyms. There was nothing. It was just not realistic.
“And then Conor, of course, made it realistic for all of us. When Conor became Conor, that was when I said ‘I can do that too’.”
And so after a short spell of boxing and then doing Muay Thai, Queally sent Kavanagh a message on Facebook, asking if he could join his ranks.
“I remember him being very dismissive of me,” Queally said, laughing.
“I didn’t take no for an answer. He told me to come up on Monday night and I did. I have a cousin who is an actor, Michael Sheehan, he’s actually on [Irish soap opera] Fair City. He was training there at the time. I was all excited.
“Michael told me Monday night was his advanced jiu jitsu class. I was like, ‘oh’.
“Kieran McGeeney, this Armagh [Gaelic] footballer, was training there at the time and he was good at jiu jitsu. At the end of the night I was wrecked and ready to pack up and John said get back on the mat and points at McGeeney.
“I’ll never forget that 10 minutes. It was the most horrific 10 minutes of my life. I cannot describe to you how bad it was.
“There’s one thing I can vividly remember. Kieran was on top of me and I’m not messing, he started putting his hand underneath my rib cage and I am not messing, his hand was inside my body.
“He was pulling on my ribs. I thought I was going to break my ribs and I was going to tap, but I didn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I kind of knew what was going on, even though John didn’t say anything, it felt like a big set-up.”
It was just that. Kavanagh had told Kieran McGeeney – a legend in the GAA world – to “torture” Queally, to see if he was serious about becoming an MMA fighter.
