Manchester boxing trainer Joe Gallagher will undergo an operation in September after revealing his cancer has returned to his liver.
The 57-year-old was previously diagnosed with stage four bowel and liver cancer. He underwent chemotherapy and major surgery before being given the all clear in September last year.
However, Gallagher told the Toe2Toe Sky Sports Boxing podcast that scans in January showed the disease had returned, forcing him to complete a further seven cycles of aggressive chemotherapy.
"2026 has been a bumpy road. It was a right kick in the nuts at the beginning of the year," Gallagher said.
"In September, I got given the all clear on the plane to Vegas, and then I went in back in January for something to do with my heart, believe it or not, I have a heart! I went for scans and then they came back and they said: 'Listen the cancer has come back to your liver.'"
Gallagher had travelled to Las Vegas in September to accompany Mikie Tallon for a fight ahead of Canelo Alvarez against Terence Crawford.
Tumour on main artery
The new tumours were initially declared inoperable, but the chemotherapy has shrunk them enough to allow surgery to proceed.
"There's four areas of the liver that has got cancer, three of them can be cut out, one of them they've got to burn it out, but that one is sitting on a main artery that's carrying blood from the feet to the heart," he said.
"That's the one that needed to shrink a little bit, which it has."
Gallagher said the latest round of treatment had a visible toll on his health.
"The cocktail of chemo was huge. Obviously, you could see me losing my hair and everything else," he said. "I've been doing that, coming through it all, so now I'm going to have an operation in September to get rid of this."
Despite his consultant advising rest, Gallagher has continued coaching.
"I was just so annoyed because I thought: '2026, here we go, I've got a great team of talent coming through.' And then I thought: 'Oh my God.' But we've still worked on. I was in the gym yesterday," he said.
He hopes to return to the gym at the start of October.
Tallon targets Joshua versus Fury undercard
Tallon, who also appeared on the podcast, said he hopes to secure a place on the undercard of the proposed heavyweight fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
"I know just as much as everyone else. I've seen Netflix put a promo out on the WWE last night or something like that," Tallon said. "It'll be great. Joshua vs Fury. A mega fight. So, I'll keep my fingers crossed. If I could get on the card, I would. Definitely."
Tallon, who previously stopped Argentinian Olympian Leandro Jose Blanc in the first round with a body shot, said he had been motivated by Gallagher's history with fighters including Callum Smith, Beefy Smith, Scott Quigg, Anthony Crolla, Paul Butler and Marcus Morrison.
"Joe was making montages and little clips of all the fighters years ago, all them stopping people with body shots," Tallon said. "I said to myself, the next time he's going to put me in one of those videos. And then after we got that stoppage win, I was like: 'You can add me to one of those videos now, Joe!'"
