Prospect Watch: Aaron McKenna

The Old School Boxing Club looks more like a chapel than a gym.

Nestled off the side of a narrow rural round in farming country in the small town of Smithborough in County Monaghan, Ireland, the little stone building has produced more than 22 national champions in the past dozen years.

This is where rising junior middleweight Aaron ‘The Silencer’ McKenna 10-0 (6) first learnt his trade.

“I started boxing because my father was a boxer when he was younger and his father as well was a boxer,” said McKenna.

“Me and my two brothers went down to Smithborough Boxing Cub and it took off from there. We loved it. We were all Irish champions in the one year. I don’t think many brothers from Ireland – three brothers – who have won an Irish title in the same year.”

The 20-year-old McKenna had to earn his stripes against his older brothers Stevie, 23, and Gary, 25.

“Growing up me and my two brother Stevie and Gary did a lot of sparring with each other,” he said. “We had a boxing gym right at the back of our house, so we always did a lot of sparring with each other. It was always competitive.

“Sometimes it would be feisty enough. We would always try to get the better of each other no matter what it.”

In a town of less than 400 people, McKenna was lucky to have two brothers to work with. It was a practical, too.

“To get good sparring in Ireland we would’ve had to travel to Belfast or Dublin, which takes like an hour-and-a-half,” he said.

“It was just good that we had each other. Most of the time we would just spar with each other and coming up to the fights we would then do a bit of travelling [for sparring], so it was great to have each other.”

McKenna has been on the fast track to success since his amateur career that saw him amass an impressive record of 152-9.

As an 18-year-old he was courted by US promoters, eventually settling with Golden Boy Promotions. The decision saw him relocate to the States where his first professional bout was on the undercard of the world title fight between Tevin Farmer and Kenichi Ogawa in Las Vegas.

“It’s been brilliant so far. I’ve had 10 fights in just over two years and I’m only 20 years old,” McKenna said.

“They’ve been moving me along and there’s some great fights for me in the future. There’s no better person to have behind you than the man himself, Oscar De La Hoya.”

McKenna was scheduled to face heavy-handed Mexican Christopher Degoladdo on the Victor Ortiz Jr versus Samuel Vargas undercard at the Forum in Los Angeles on March 28 before the global coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of the fight.

The fight would have been an opportunity for the classy boxer-puncher to show off some of the new tricks he has learnt under new coach Freddie Roach.

“My camp has been brilliant for this fight. I’ve teamed up now with Freddie Roach. He’s a world class trainer and he’s going to take me to the next level,” he said.

“Working in the gym with Freddie, he’s learning me new things. After sparring he’s telling me what to work on, so it’s great to be with Freddie Roach.

“I’m up against a guy who has a lot of knockouts. He’s heavy-handed so he’s going to come and try to knock me out. But I’m going to be on my game, I’m feeling razor-sharp for this fight.”

At almost 6-foot-2 McKenna is big for the weight and has the duel ability to box from range and bang hard in close. His body shots are particularly impressive.

“I’m moving up now to super welterweight. This is my first fight at super welterweight. Right now I feel real strong and I’ve filled out a bit since my last fight. I’m feeling big and strong going into this one,” he said.

McKenna was previously training under the guidance of Robert Garcia but the travel time over to Oxnard proved prohibitive.

The Wild Card Gym is much closer to his home base in Woodland Hills, where he moved to at the end of 2017.

“It was a big drive so it was taking us an hour-and-a-half, and hour and 40 minutes to get there,” he said. “It was too hard on us, so our manager guided us towards Freddie. It’s only a 25-minute drive to the Wild Card.

“Freddie has been working on many things. He’s been working on my range and my body shots as well. After sparring he works a lot with me as well. He tells me what to do, what I need to improve on.

“He’s a great trainer. He’s trained a lot of world champions, I think 27 world champions, so it’s great to have that experience. He’s going to take me to the top.”

McKenna remains a student of the game and is always looking to improve on previous performances.

Roach seems to be the perfect fit for the young and studious McKenna.

“He’s just working on many things I need to work on. He’s working on many types of ways I need to go to the body with. There’s a lot of different things I need to work on. There’s always room for improvement in everything,” he said.

“It’s just going to be great to have his head in the corner on fight night. Going into that ring and having Freddie Roach with me is going to be a great confidence boost too.”

McKenna was hoping to have five fight this year but with no end in sight for the sports ban, that is unlikely to happen. Still, he is looking forward to getting past six rounds bouts and on to 10-rounders.

“I think it suit me much more. The sooner I go to 10, 12 rounds that better. By the end of the year I want to have a 10 rounder and get into the top 15 in the world rankings,” he said.

“This year I want to have five fights. So, I want to finish the year with a 10-rounder and hopefully get into the top 15 in the world rankings.”

Despite being an import, McKenna is fast building up a strong fanbase due to his explosive and entertaining style.

“Over here I’m starting to build a big fan base,” he said. “Every fight I’m starting to notice I’m getting more fans and I’m starting to go up and up. Whether it’s Mexican fans or American fans, they like my style.”