McKenna ready for 'life-changing opportunity' as he vows to 'take over division'

Irish Daily Mirror

22-04-2025

Aaron McKenna is ready to announce himself on the world stage this weekend as he looks to take a huge step towards his ultimate aim of becoming world champion.
The younger of Monaghan's boxing brothers, 'The Silencer', faces former world champ Liam Smith in what he admits is a "life-changing opportunity" on the Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn card.
The bout takes place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with promoter Eddie Hearn describing the event as the biggest boxing show the UK has ever seen.
"It's a massive opportunity against a very good name," admits the middleweight. "He's a former world champion.
"He's been in with the likes of Canelo Álvarez, Jaime Munguía and Chris Eubank Jr. He comes from a well respected family, reminds us of ourselves.
"It's a massive fight to get and a huge platform and on the night I think it's going to be holding close to 70,000 people so it's going to be some feeling walking out to that many people watching but I'm ready for it now.
"I think this is the night people will finally realise what I'm about and what I can do and what I've been saying and preaching all these years is finally going to come out."
The older of the fighting siblings, Stephen (15-1, 14 KOs), will be in his younger brother's corner for the April 26 bout and believes a superstar will be born in North London.
"This is his moment, this is where people are going to see how good Aaron McKenna really is," said Stephen. "Aaron is the best middleweight in the world and he'll take out anyone and people are going to see a superstar."
Aaron is 19-0 (10 KOs) as a professional, but his career has been far from plain sailing.
Last January, his scheduled opponent, Linus Udofia, pulled out of their fight days before the bout in Liverpool, with a very late replacement forced to be found.
Aaron was then signed up for the Prizefighter tournament in Japan, beating previously undefeated American Jeovanny Estela with just 58 seconds to go in their 10-round contest in July to advance to the semi-finals.
With the outright winner set to pocket $1million and Aaron the favourite to win the tournament, it was a massive blow to him when Prizefighter didn't continue.
But these setbacks have been happening to the Liverpool and Celtic fan for a long time now.
"This has been happening to me right since the very first day," reflects Aaron. I was supposed to make my pro debut at Madison Square Garden, the big arena.
"I was supposed to be the youngest ever to ever fight there and then just the night before the fight it got cancelled so that was a tough pill to swallow.
"I'm well used to it now and then it just happened more and more regularly but it's the sport of boxing and these things happen and you just have to get used to it and not let it affect you."
McKenna is only 25, but has been working towards becoming a professional since he moved to Los Angeles as a 16-year-old, becoming Ireland's youngest ever pro at the time when he made his debut at the age of 18.
He spent four years out in the States before Covid forced him to move home, travelling all over and working with some of the most respected coaches in the sport.
"If you want to make it to the very top of the sport, these are the sacrifices you need to make and we knew going over to America, all the stuff we'd pick up and learn is what we needed and it was brilliant," said Aaron.
"All the gyms we've travelled to, we trained with Freddie Roach for a year, we trained with Robert Garcia for a year, travelled all over Mexico, Vegas, California and picked up as much information as we could along the way and now it's just all about really proving it."
Before America, Aaron won eight national titles, with the boxing journey for the McKenna brothers beginning in the Old School Boxing Club in their home village of Smithborough.
It's the same gym that Barry McGuigan started out in and also where Kevin McBride, who famously beat Mike Tyson 20 years ago this June, learned how to fight.
The brothers have been all around the world, sparring with the likes of many people's pound-for-pound number one Terence Crawford and spending time with multiple world champion Devin Haney, who Aaron fought as an amateur.
But they have a top class setup right at their back door known as 'The Shed', which was built by their father Fergal, a third dan black belt in karate, who coaches the brothers.
"Dad created this gym at the back of the house. We've built on it over the years, We slowly added things," explains Stephen.
"First there was no ring here and then we added the ring. We added bit by bit and it's just been so handy to have everything here at the back door."
This camp has seen Aaron spend five weeks in Las Vegas, where he got similar sparring to what Crawford will have for his next fight, working alongside the two-weight undisputed champion's famous trainer Brian 'BoMac' McIntyre.
He then spent a few more weeks in the UK before returning home to 'The Shed' to finish his preparations.
So what happens on Saturday?
"I just don't want to win but I want to win in style, I want to really stamp my authority and really let everyone know what I'm all about," explains Aaron.
"I'm looking forward now to bursting onto the scene and taking over the middleweight division."
Former light-middleweight world champion Smith (33-4-1) hasn't fought since being stopped by Eubank Jr in the tenth round of their rematch in September 2023, eight months after the Liverpool native knocked him out in Manchester.
But Aaron is expecting the "best version" of 36-year-old 'Beefy' at the home of Spurs.
"The one that beat Eubank I'm expecting that or the world champion version of Liam Smith," stated Aaron. "I know he comes from a family that trains very hard so they put in serious work and they train very hard like ourselves.
"That's the Liam Smith I'm expecting, the best possible version of him and that's the one I want to show up so it can make me look even better when I do beat him."