Aaron McKenna impressed in his last fight, in April 2025, when he came of age to defeat veteran former champion Liam Smith.
It might have taken some time, but tonight the Irishman gets the opportunity to capitalize Saturday when he fights Etinosa Oliha for the vacant IBF middleweight belt at the 3Arena in Dublin.
“Obviously, I want to look very good. I want to look spectacular,” McKenna said. “And training’s been going really good. Sparring’s been going very good. So I’m just fully locked in on beating Etinosa in the best fashion possible. And I believe I do. I believe my skills technically are a level above his, and even physically, as a fighter, he might come across as a guy that looks strong. But I believe I’m way stronger than him. He has a big upper body but them legs, he’s like a guy that skipped leg day. So it doesn’t matter what way this fight’s going, whether it’s boxing, long, southpaw, whatever I do, I think I beat him.”
The win over Liverpool’s Smith elevated McKenna to 20-0 (10 KOs).
His Italian opponent is 22-0 (10 KOs), and while McKenna has been inactive since Smith, he had hoped for a big fight back in January.
“I was very close to getting a fight with [Carlos] Adames for the title, and it was basically nearly done. And then all of a sudden, he changed his mind and went for someone else.
“So that was a fight that was basically going to happen in Madison Square Garden in New York. I was over there at the time, the day before the press conference for that fight and all of a sudden, he changed his mind and went for an easier guy and it fell apart.”
Adames instead fought Austin “Ammo” Williams and McKenna was left, frustrated, on the sidelines. But he kept working in the shadows, waiting for this moment.
This week, he and Oliha faced off and while some said there was tension, McKenna merely shrugged “it’s just the same as anything. I always like to lock in from whenever the fight’s announced. And a staredown’s a staredown. You’ve got to get a good look at your opponent and see what they’re really feeling. But I feel confident going into this one.”
McKenna said he has signed up to be drug-tested by Zuffa and that he will also be tested by the Irish commission.
Asked whether he thought boxing has a PED problem – fellow middleweight Janibek Alimkhanuly is one of many high-profile positives in recent times – McKenna said: “Boxing, like you can see, a lot of fighters have been getting caught over the last few years. And the more testing, the better it is for all fighters involved. Everyone wants a fair sport. And you want to be going in there and making sure it’s a good fight and every fighter’s clean and the only way forward is to increase the amount of testing, I believe.”
McKenna has been on the long path to the title with his father, Fergal, and has carved out a good reputation in the gyms in the US. But, McKenna reckons, boxing fans have not seen him anywhere near his best, including against Smith.
“Going into that fight, not many people knew I could fight southpaw,” McKenna continued.
“Not many people knew I could fight in the back foot like that. And I’d done it easy enough. That’s a couple of the styles that people haven’t seen. So, you’re still only seeing a fraction of what I can really do, but it takes guys like that to bring it out. In that last fight, I had to fight differently and it worked very well for me. In different fights, people are going to see different styles. Once I get in that ring, I can adapt to any style put in front of me. I’ve seen every style there is in the world.”
McKenna doesn’t believe Oliha brings anything he’s not already experienced and he has studied his opponent in depth, with both his father and brother, fellow pro Stevie, and he believes he will have Oliha breathing heavily after a few rounds.
“I’m going to really take him to the trenches and show him what a real fight is.”
In doing so, McKenna can add to the current boxing renaissance in Ireland, and said he is aligned with the right company to do it.
“Well definitely becoming world champion on Saturday will definitely open the doors for that,” he said of the continued Irish boxing boom. “And I know Dana [White] loves the Irish. He always speaks highly of the Irish and the Irish fans. So come Saturday night, once everyone gets to experience the atmosphere and just refreshes everyone’s minds how good the Irish support and fans actually are, it always will kickstart stuff like this again. I hope to do it on a regular basis and I think I will.”
For years, too, the middleweight division has been criticised for a lack of starpower. McKenna believes he can fill the void and become the dominant player at 160lbs.
“I think so,” he concluded. “I think I’ll be the guy to fill that void and take over the division. I’ve been saying it for years, the world champions, they’re not fighting each other.
“They’re not even fighting good guys in the ratings. In The Ring magazine, when’s the last time two guys in the top 10 fought each other? Like me and Etinosa, I’m number five, he’s number six in the ratings. This is the first time in quite a long time that two guys in the top ten in The Ring [at middleweight] are fighting each other. So it’ll definitely be big for the middleweight division, this fight. I plan to take the biggest and best fights. I want to unify the division. I want to fight the best, only the best. And if they don’t want to fight me, I’ll take them on at 168.”
