THE BOY DONE good, only he’s not so much a boy anymore.
To many of those media members ringside, or the Irish boxing massive fist-pumping at the 3Arena or from their living rooms, Aaron McKenna will always feel like the wee kid who went after the dream, moving to Los Angeles to sign with Golden Boy Promotions as a teenager.
To read on fight week that McKenna is now 27 required a double-take. Where the hell does the time go?
Well, the vast majority of his has been ploughed into his craft, an investment which on Saturday returned a world-title belt, McKenna joining only ‘Nonpareil’ Jack Dempsey, Steve Collins and Andy Lee as an Irish middleweight world champion.
The rest of us blinked and McKenna fulfilled his promise. Contrast that, though, to the boxer’s own perspective: nine years as a professional (or 21 years since he first picked up a pair of gloves), tens of thousands of kilometres run on the roads of Santa Monica and Monaghan, thousands of rounds of sparring against some of the toughest boxing talents on the planet, 21 prizefights, two transatlantic moves with half his family, and one night in Dublin on which he had to get it all right. And he nailed it.
“You’ve been covering it since I was about 17″, world champion McKenna tells The 42 from the family garden in Smithborough, “so, you know how much we’ve put in even to get to this point; how much it took, how much sacrifice it takes.
“Even, like, going over to America: that’s not easy. And I’m sure we probably told you over the years how tough it is over there, but we enjoyed it, and it’s very much what we needed if we wanted to make it to the very top. I definitely do think that’s one of the reasons why I have become the fighter I am today, because of that sacrifice of us going over there; moving over there for four or five years and getting the best quality of training.
“And now it’s all worked out in the end and I’ve become world champion,” McKenna smiles.
Aaron McKenna is crowned IBF middleweight world champion. Gary Carr / INPHO
Gary Carr / INPHO / INPHO
In their battle for the vacant IBF middleweight world title, McKenna channelled it all into a wonderfully rounded performance against the physically strong, rugged and unrelenting Etinosa Oliha, earning a unanimous decision with plenty of room to spare on the judges’ scorecards.
But again, it’s easy for those looking in from the outside to see ‘comfort’ in victory whereas the boxer himself can feel only punches and pain and pressure, his brain running a mile a minute as he plays full-contact chess with an opponent.
Entering the final third, as Oliha attempted to up the ante with his attritional style, McKenna’s father and trainer, Fergal, told Aaron to throw his mind back to California, where he so often sparred at a similar intensity in some of the least forgiving gyms in the world.
Dad’s instructions were observably prescient: ‘The Silencer’ kicked for home, eventually outmuscling Oliha as well as comprehensively outboxing him down the stretch.
“It definitely does help when you hear something like that,” McKenna says. “It does take you back to the moments when you’re in the gym sparring… Like, when I was over there initially (for three months) when I was 16, I was sparring a guy who became world champion two months later.
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“So, when I’m in there in the heat of the moment, it takes you back to that moment of, y’know, ‘What sort of style do I need here’, and it just reminds you, ‘I’ve been made for this moment for a long time.’”
Aaron McKenna celebrates with his older brother, Stevie, and his father, Fergal, at the 3Arena. Gary Carr / INPHO
Gary Carr / INPHO / INPHO
In California between 2017 and his eventual move back to Monaghan during the Covid-19 pandemic, McKenna was exposed to the best in class. He sparred countless world-level opponents and champions. He trained under elite operators such as Robert Garcia and Freddie Roach. His and his brother Stevie’s S&C regimens were even partly influenced by one of track athletics’ greatest ever minds, Joe Douglas, the former trainer of Carl Lewis, among others, who passed on expert advice to father Fergal during a chance encounter while the two young McKenna brothers ran the Santa Monica Stairs.
All of those relationships and more contributed to Saturday’s world-title success at The Point. And yet, when the stakes were highest, McKenna was cornered by his father and his older brother, with dad Fergal joining illustrious but sparse company as a world-title-winning Irish trainer. Aaron’s world-title bid was, for the most part, launched from the boxing gym that Fergal had years earlier built for his sons in the back garden of the family home.
“Oh, it makes it so much better to have my dad there in the corner,” Aaron says. “And he’s basically put in the same sacrifices that I have.
“Like, he was a carpenter, and then when I wanted to go to America, he basically gave up that job to give me the best chance as a boxer, as well as my brother Stephen.
“And you know as well, it’s not just the boxing side of it which is tough, but outside the ring, it’s probably even tougher; the business side of things. And especially over in America, you need someone that you can actually trust. We were very fortunate. Our dad is well switched on in that sense, so we didn’t have to worry about anything outside of boxing. All we had to do was just focus on our boxing and our training, and he did all the rest.”
Of course, while Fergal lived in California with two of his sons between 2017 and 2020, an equal-part sacrifice was made by his wife, the lads’ mother, Loretta, who held the fort back home with eldest son Gary.
“It was probably just as hard for her as it was for us,” says Aaron.
“She used to come over as often as she could. Stephen and I had 14 fights between us in America and she didn’t miss one of them.
“Even here at home now, while we did our training camp there, we’d just do our training, come in, she has our food ready, and then we can just rest and recover. So we didn’t have anything to worry about.”
World champion Aaron McKenna and his mother, Loretta.
The past couple of days have naturally been a whirlwind. With the world-title belt at his side, McKenna received a Garda escort into Monaghan, and then Castleblayney, shaking hands with all and sundry at a rate that would make a TD blush.
The Farney’s first boxing world champion since Barry McGuigan, he’s the talk of his home county, and his phone has been bubbling like a boiling pot with notifications on WhatsApp, Instagram, you name it.
“I haven’t even seen half of them yet,” McKenna laughs. “I’ve tried to go through everything, but, like, it’s blown up. This is the most notifications that I’ve ever gotten in my life, so I’m still actually looking through them all.
“It’s just great to see the actual support now, and good feedback from this fight because, like…
I’ve spent 21 years doing it, but all it takes in life is this one fight and you’re basically… it’s changed my life overnight.
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“The more I think of it, the crazier it is, like. Less than 20 names have been world champions from Ireland.
Honestly, the more thought I give it, the weirder it gets for me. It’s just crazy to be part of that list now, for history.
“In years to come, I want people to look back and see my name on that list and say, ‘He was one of the greatest to come out of Ireland.’ And that’s what I plan to do over the next few years.
“I want to unify the division — and not just the middleweight division, but move up, then, to 168 (super-middleweight), 175 (light-heavyweight) and do it at all weights. That’s my plan.”
McKenna fires a jab at Etinosa Oliha. Gary Carr / INPHO
Gary Carr / INPHO / INPHO
What endears McKenna to his peers is his dedication to the sport, which is Katie Taylor-like in that the vast majority would consider it unobtainable. He doesn’t drink alcohol. He doesn’t eat junk food. Even in the 16-month gap between his two most recent fights — much to his frustration, McKenna had a couple of opponents pull out of ostensibly agreed bouts in the interim — he stuck to a training regimen as though he was still in-competition.
Taylor, though, will at least treat herself and her team to a celebratory McDonald’s after a big win, whereas McKenna commits only to eating “food, food, and more food”, with his mother’s famous chicken curry at the top of the menu.
“And then play a good bit of pool and darts, and just do stuff that I enjoy doing, really,” says McKenna, as he maps out his first few weeks on top of the world. “I might try and get to a Liverpool game, too, when the Premier League starts back up.”
This is the world champion in his most debauched state.
He plays pool and darts with his childhood friends in Newtownbutler, a village in south-east Fermanagh, about a 20-minute drive from the family home in Smithborough, Co. Monaghan.
“It’s always good craic,” he says. “We always play for a bit of money as well, so it always adds to the tension. But it’s more pride over money at this stage.”
Given the level of hand-eye coordination required for his day job, one can only assume McKenna is decent with cue and dart in paw.
“Not bad, yeah,” he smiles. “Over in Newtownbutler, I’m the best about.”
Which is about the most trash-talk you’ll ever hear from Ireland’s newest world champion.
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Aaron McKenna's plans to celebrate his world-title win? A few games of pool and darts with the lads
THE BOY DONE good, only he’s not so much a boy anymore.
To many of those media members ringside, or the Irish boxing massive fist-pumping at the 3Arena or from their living rooms, Aaron McKenna will always feel like the wee kid who went after the dream, moving to Los Angeles to sign with Golden Boy Promotions as a teenager.
To read on fight week that McKenna is now 27 required a double-take. Where the hell does the time go?
Well, the vast majority of his has been ploughed into his craft, an investment which on Saturday returned a world-title belt, McKenna joining only ‘Nonpareil’ Jack Dempsey, Steve Collins and Andy Lee as an Irish middleweight world champion.
The rest of us blinked and McKenna fulfilled his promise. Contrast that, though, to the boxer’s own perspective: nine years as a professional (or 21 years since he first picked up a pair of gloves), tens of thousands of kilometres run on the roads of Santa Monica and Monaghan, thousands of rounds of sparring against some of the toughest boxing talents on the planet, 21 prizefights, two transatlantic moves with half his family, and one night in Dublin on which he had to get it all right. And he nailed it.
“You’ve been covering it since I was about 17″, world champion McKenna tells The 42 from the family garden in Smithborough, “so, you know how much we’ve put in even to get to this point; how much it took, how much sacrifice it takes.
“Even, like, going over to America: that’s not easy. And I’m sure we probably told you over the years how tough it is over there, but we enjoyed it, and it’s very much what we needed if we wanted to make it to the very top. I definitely do think that’s one of the reasons why I have become the fighter I am today, because of that sacrifice of us going over there; moving over there for four or five years and getting the best quality of training.
“And now it’s all worked out in the end and I’ve become world champion,” McKenna smiles.
In their battle for the vacant IBF middleweight world title, McKenna channelled it all into a wonderfully rounded performance against the physically strong, rugged and unrelenting Etinosa Oliha, earning a unanimous decision with plenty of room to spare on the judges’ scorecards.
But again, it’s easy for those looking in from the outside to see ‘comfort’ in victory whereas the boxer himself can feel only punches and pain and pressure, his brain running a mile a minute as he plays full-contact chess with an opponent.
Entering the final third, as Oliha attempted to up the ante with his attritional style, McKenna’s father and trainer, Fergal, told Aaron to throw his mind back to California, where he so often sparred at a similar intensity in some of the least forgiving gyms in the world.
Dad’s instructions were observably prescient: ‘The Silencer’ kicked for home, eventually outmuscling Oliha as well as comprehensively outboxing him down the stretch.
“It definitely does help when you hear something like that,” McKenna says. “It does take you back to the moments when you’re in the gym sparring… Like, when I was over there initially (for three months) when I was 16, I was sparring a guy who became world champion two months later.
“So, when I’m in there in the heat of the moment, it takes you back to that moment of, y’know, ‘What sort of style do I need here’, and it just reminds you, ‘I’ve been made for this moment for a long time.’”
In California between 2017 and his eventual move back to Monaghan during the Covid-19 pandemic, McKenna was exposed to the best in class. He sparred countless world-level opponents and champions. He trained under elite operators such as Robert Garcia and Freddie Roach. His and his brother Stevie’s S&C regimens were even partly influenced by one of track athletics’ greatest ever minds, Joe Douglas, the former trainer of Carl Lewis, among others, who passed on expert advice to father Fergal during a chance encounter while the two young McKenna brothers ran the Santa Monica Stairs.
All of those relationships and more contributed to Saturday’s world-title success at The Point. And yet, when the stakes were highest, McKenna was cornered by his father and his older brother, with dad Fergal joining illustrious but sparse company as a world-title-winning Irish trainer. Aaron’s world-title bid was, for the most part, launched from the boxing gym that Fergal had years earlier built for his sons in the back garden of the family home.
“Oh, it makes it so much better to have my dad there in the corner,” Aaron says. “And he’s basically put in the same sacrifices that I have.
“Like, he was a carpenter, and then when I wanted to go to America, he basically gave up that job to give me the best chance as a boxer, as well as my brother Stephen.
“And you know as well, it’s not just the boxing side of it which is tough, but outside the ring, it’s probably even tougher; the business side of things. And especially over in America, you need someone that you can actually trust. We were very fortunate. Our dad is well switched on in that sense, so we didn’t have to worry about anything outside of boxing. All we had to do was just focus on our boxing and our training, and he did all the rest.”
Of course, while Fergal lived in California with two of his sons between 2017 and 2020, an equal-part sacrifice was made by his wife, the lads’ mother, Loretta, who held the fort back home with eldest son Gary.
“It was probably just as hard for her as it was for us,” says Aaron.
“She used to come over as often as she could. Stephen and I had 14 fights between us in America and she didn’t miss one of them.
“Even here at home now, while we did our training camp there, we’d just do our training, come in, she has our food ready, and then we can just rest and recover. So we didn’t have anything to worry about.”
The past couple of days have naturally been a whirlwind. With the world-title belt at his side, McKenna received a Garda escort into Monaghan, and then Castleblayney, shaking hands with all and sundry at a rate that would make a TD blush.
The Farney’s first boxing world champion since Barry McGuigan, he’s the talk of his home county, and his phone has been bubbling like a boiling pot with notifications on WhatsApp, Instagram, you name it.
“I haven’t even seen half of them yet,” McKenna laughs. “I’ve tried to go through everything, but, like, it’s blown up. This is the most notifications that I’ve ever gotten in my life, so I’m still actually looking through them all.
“It’s just great to see the actual support now, and good feedback from this fight because, like…
“The more I think of it, the crazier it is, like. Less than 20 names have been world champions from Ireland.
“In years to come, I want people to look back and see my name on that list and say, ‘He was one of the greatest to come out of Ireland.’ And that’s what I plan to do over the next few years.
“I want to unify the division — and not just the middleweight division, but move up, then, to 168 (super-middleweight), 175 (light-heavyweight) and do it at all weights. That’s my plan.”
What endears McKenna to his peers is his dedication to the sport, which is Katie Taylor-like in that the vast majority would consider it unobtainable. He doesn’t drink alcohol. He doesn’t eat junk food. Even in the 16-month gap between his two most recent fights — much to his frustration, McKenna had a couple of opponents pull out of ostensibly agreed bouts in the interim — he stuck to a training regimen as though he was still in-competition.
Taylor, though, will at least treat herself and her team to a celebratory McDonald’s after a big win, whereas McKenna commits only to eating “food, food, and more food”, with his mother’s famous chicken curry at the top of the menu.
“And then play a good bit of pool and darts, and just do stuff that I enjoy doing, really,” says McKenna, as he maps out his first few weeks on top of the world. “I might try and get to a Liverpool game, too, when the Premier League starts back up.”
This is the world champion in his most debauched state.
He plays pool and darts with his childhood friends in Newtownbutler, a village in south-east Fermanagh, about a 20-minute drive from the family home in Smithborough, Co. Monaghan.
“It’s always good craic,” he says. “We always play for a bit of money as well, so it always adds to the tension. But it’s more pride over money at this stage.”
Given the level of hand-eye coordination required for his day job, one can only assume McKenna is decent with cue and dart in paw.
“Not bad, yeah,” he smiles. “Over in Newtownbutler, I’m the best about.”
Which is about the most trash-talk you’ll ever hear from Ireland’s newest world champion.
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Aaron McKenna Boxing champion of the world Interview Irish Boxing