Monaghan boxing brothers may hang out with Kendrick Lamar but their dream is to fight in their home county

THEY are competing with the very best boxers on the planet and hanging out with Kendrick Lamar and Josh Taylor, however for boxing brothers Aaron and Stephen McKenna their important aim is to battle of their residence county of Monaghan.

The siblings are each pro-athletes and stay undefeated of their careers thus far, with Stevie returning to the ring this weekend. 

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However whereas they usually spend weekends in LA assembly A-Checklist stars, they nonetheless bear in mind the place they got here from. 

Aaron mentioned: “The Irish are nice fighters and we need to make it thrilling for the very best fanbase on the planet so hopefully sometime we are able to battle again in Eire, me and Stephen.

“The aim is to battle in Monaghan in St Tiernach’s Park and have all of the Irish followers there, everybody in Monaghan, it’d be a dream come true.”

24-year-old Stephen, known as The Hitman, is signed to boxing legend Mick Hennessy’s Hennessy Sports activities, who used to advertise Tyson Fury. 

And he mentioned his boss has “huge plans” for him, saying: “Mick has huge plans forward for me, he desires me to headline huge occasions in Eire so within the subsequent few years you’ll see this.

“We need to deliver huge identify boxing to Eire and for us to headline huge reveals, battle world titles in Eire and sell-out arenas.”

‘ALL TRAINING’

The brothers had been launched to the game by their father Fergal when Aaron was solely six, and Stephen was a few years older. 

They shortly fell in love with the game and it turned clear it was not only a passion, with Aaron signed to Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. 

However dedicating their lives to the game means they don’t have a lot of a social life. 

Nevertheless once they do, they get to combine with some prime names, counting rapper Kendrick Lamar amongst their friends. 

Their Instagram reveals them assembly well-known faces corresponding to Katie Taylor, Tyson Fury,  Arnold Schwarzenegger and David Duchovny. 

Their dad Fergal mentioned: “There actually isn’t a lot of a social life, it’s all coaching and preparing for fights.

“In order quickly as one boy is completed, we’re prepared for the subsequent man. I may give you an instance. Most fighters practice for a coaching camp that often lasts 8 weeks, probably 12.

“Our coaching camp begins correctly within the first week of January after which it finishes on the finish of December.

“So we practice proper by the entire yr. We don’t cease so if somebody offers us a name and says, ‘You may have a battle on such and such a date,’ we’re all the time prepared, we’re all the time ready, and we’ve all the time been like that.

“Even from the boys coming by the novice scene. The factor that we actually don’t like is being inactive so if the boys aren’t stored busy, it type of frustrates us as a result of we’re all the time prepared for fights.

“However the different finish of it’s we’re out and about and blend so much with plenty of different well-known athletes. We’ve had Stephen with Josh Taylor- he’s a a number of world champion. Once we’re in Los Angeles, we get to unwind by assembly a few of the extra well-known movie stars over in LA.

“On downtime, the boys prefer to go to the taking pictures vary, after which they do jet snowboarding on Sundays, so Sunday is allotted for a enjoyable day. So though we’re in coaching mode, we nonetheless have one enjoyable day every week.”

‘GOOD FRIENDS’ WITH KENDRICK

Aaron, who is called The Silencer,  added: “We met Kendrick Lamar within the health club someday and we turned good mates with him. I used to be combating a couple of month later and I requested did he need to go to the battle and he did.

“Nearly half an hour earlier than the battle he got here into the altering room to want me luck, and it was like a 4 and half hour drive to get to the place the place it was. To fulfill folks like that simply is unbelievable and it was an amazing expertise.”

They could be in numerous classes, with Stephen a super-lightweight and Aaron’s subsequent battle subsequent month within the middleweight group, however the pair are aggressive with one another. 

However Stephen mentioned having his brother in the identical sport really makes him higher.

He continued: “With out my dad and my brother, it’d be not possible. Having them on both aspect of me. Aaron- working with him on a regular basis within the health club, we spar with one another, we do every thing collectively and my dad is with us the entire manner.

“We journey the world collectively and we make an amazing team- there is not any higher group than us and we’re going straight to the highest.”

He added: “We’re aggressive with one another, we’re all the time attempt to get higher than one another it doesn’t matter what it is- in working, in sparring or in power work, we’re all the time attempting to get higher than one another and it brings us each on.

“It would not be the identical with out Aaron-we make one another higher, we study from one another. He brings his attributes and I deliver mine.”

And Aaron said the pandemic actually helped them become better.

“We were very lucky to have each other over the lockdown when no-one had anyone to work with. We could spar away with each other and train away like normal so we learned so much over the lockdown, we’ve improved so much.”

• STEPHEN is fighting this Saturday night in a six-rounder in Coventry, with free live fight night coverage starting on Channel 5 from 10pm.

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