The man driving Team McKenna onwards

By Maitiú Monaghan

As the hype around Aaron and Stevie McKenna’s boxing credentials reached orbit last week, a key cog in Team McKenna was determined to keep his sons grounded.

Fergal McKenna’s role as father, coach, and mentor can be a difficult one, but it is one he has come to embrace down through the years.

“I’m my own man, you know. I’ve no one. It’s just me. I carry the can,” he told the Celt.

“It’s been a rollercoaster sort of journey. There’s been highs and lows. As a coach, I’ve learned as I’ve went along and adapted and changed certain things that we do.

“So, we’re now at the final phase of their career, and that’s when I have to be at my utmost best, and they have to be at their best too,” McKenna explained.

Fergal was in Aaron’s corner when he fought for the IBF Middleweight title earlier this month, as he has been for all of his sons’ professional fights.

Standing on his own on top of the stage erected by Monaghan County Council for the homecoming, he cuts a figure already thinking about the next bout.

Naturally, questions had been swirling all evening about future fights - and the fans and elected reps in attendance were keen to push for St. Tiernach’s Park as a possible venue.

“It’s early days,” Fergal started. “Aaron’s just after going off and winning a world title, so it is in my thoughts, it is something that we’re looking at.

“I think if the people of Monaghan want it, they can get it.”

Teaching your sons to keep their guard up, move their feet, jab with the left and work the body are one thing. Helping them to navigate TV deals, sponsors, agents, and the politics of boxing is a completely skill.

Zuffa Boxing provided a platform for the McKennas to fight for a world-title on Irish soil, assisted by their manager in the US, Mike Ferraro.

“He was able to push the right buttons to create the right opportunity, because Aaron’s been ready for a world title, this couple of years. But he needed a good, strong presence to get it over the line, and Mike Ferraro did that,” Fergal revealed.

But there’s always another fight and the next one seems to be particularly important - especially for Stevie, who is at a crossroads in his career. The ‘money fight’ would be against Calum Walsh, another Irish fighter with a fascinating style. Walsh has played down talk of a fight with Stevie – claiming that Irish fighters shouldn’t face one another too early in their career. That’s not quite how Fergal sees it: “That’s a get-out clause. What he’s doing there isn’t smart of him.

“He’s more or less suggesting that, why would two Irish fighters fight each other? Because he’s in a situation where, if he accepts a fight with Stephen, it’s a very high-risk fight. It’s really a high-risk fight. And there’s a good possibility that he’ll be beaten.”

Fergal has been coaching ambitious Irish fighters for a long time. He’s been around the block, and he isn’t afraid to offer up words of wisdom to those in need:

“But what I would say to Callum Walsh would be, I would say something like: the guy that’s afraid to lose will never win.

“Take the fight.”