MONAGHAN LIGHT WELTERWEIGHT Aaron McKenna has become the country’s youngest professional boxer after inking a deal with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions in the States.
An eight-time national champion in the underage ranks, McKenna – fighting out of Old School Boxing Club in Smithborough – will head for the hills of Hollywood to embark on his career in the paid ranks. The 18-year-old is also a European Schoolboys gold medalist, and picked up silver at the European Juniors in 2014.
He’ll be managed by Sheer Sports, who guide the career of his Golden Boy stablemate from Donegal and current North American middleweight champion, Jason ‘El Animal’ Quigley[13-0, 10KOs).
McKenna was initially slated to turn professional last year, aged 16, with a debut tentatively scheduled for Mexico due to American labour laws. He has been back and forth to the States since, sparring big names such as WBO super-bantamweight champ Jessie Magdaleno - a gym-mate of Quigley and Michael Conlan.
The Monaghan man is the youngest fighter signed to Golden Boy, and will train alongside father, Fergal, at Santa Monica's Iron Gym.
His brother, Stephen, won the Irish Senior Elite light-flyweight title in 2016, and was Commonwealth Youth Games gold medallist a year prior.
