McKenna Targets Eubank Jr After IBF Title Shot
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- Aaron McKenna challenges Etinosa Oliha for the IBF middleweight world championship at Dublin's 3Arena on Saturday (August 8), live on Sky Sports — a fight he described as a dream 20 years in the making since starting boxing at age six.
- McKenna said he is "100 per cent" open to fighting Chris Eubank Jr and drew a parallel to Chris Eubank Sr.'s famous bout with Steve Collins in Cork, also aired on Sky Sports.
- McKenna outlined ambitions to become undisputed middleweight champion and then a multiple-weight world champion, claiming his 6ft 2 frame could carry him "all the way to heavyweight" by the end of his career.
- Chris Eubank Jr last boxed at middleweight and is expected to return at 168lbs, a weight McKenna could plausibly move up to if he wins the IBF title.
- McKenna acknowledged Oliha is "a very good fighter, strong, he'll be game" but expressed total self-belief, saying: "I know what I have to do."
- McKenna predicted a victory would reshape Irish boxing's commercial profile, stating it would deliver "massive, massive headlines and a new audience to Irish boxing."
Why it matters: A McKenna win on home soil at the 3Arena would give him a credible platform to pursue the Eubank Jr fight he explicitly called out, reviving an Ireland-vs-Eubank storyline last seen when Chris Eubank Sr. fought Steve Collins in Cork. McKenna himself framed the bout as a watershed moment that will generate "massive headlines" and expand Irish boxing's audience beyond its current base.
