Emmet Brennan Plans to Make it Repeat not Revenge, sort of!

Emmet Brennan doesn’t quite want it to be repeat when he rematches Kevin Cronin in a ‘Repeat or Revenge’ clash in New York this weekend.

The Dubliner and Kerry native renew acquaintances on a heavily Irish-influenced card in Madison Square Garden’s Theatre on Sunday night.

The two weight BUI Celtic Champion won their first encounter – and while is planning for the same outcome in the St Patrick’s weekend return – Brennan doesn’t want proceedings to entirely reflect their 3Arena Fight of the Year nominated clash.

The Olympian’s September UFC Fight Pass broadcast points win over the ‘Kingdom Warrior’ was shrouded in controversy.

Team Cronin, which includes Olympic medal winner Michael Conlan, cried foul post the result, while UFC boss man Dana White was very vocal in his criticism of the judging.

As a result, the 33-year-old Dublin Dockland’s graduate wants to win in such fashion there can be no ‘robbery’ claims.

“I don’t care how I win—it’s about winning,” said Brennan.

“For me, it’s about winning, but I want to win without any controversy—without anyone saying ‘robbery,” he adds.

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Brennan believes he knows just how Cronin will approach the bout. He expects the Kerry veteran of three all-Irish classics to try and drag him into a scrap.

“As for how I think this fight will go in March, we know what he’s going to bring. He’s going to bring a lot of pressure, he’s going to try and make it scrappy, similar to what he did in the first fight,” he continues, suggesting his rival would be foolish to take any other approach.

“He can’t really do something different because, without being bad, if he does, I’ll just completely outbox him.

The Inner City boxer also claims he fought one-handed when competing against the Munster man on Callum Walsh’s undercard last time out.

He says the pain barrier has now been lifted, and thus, he’ll be firing on all cylinders.

“I fought the whole of 2024 with a hand injury. I fractured my hand last January and had to pull out of a very big show just weeks before it.

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“Then I fought in March and injured the hand again in that fight. I fought Kevin in September and again in December, but my hand wasn’t right for any of those fights.

“Once I connected in the fights, my hand was going straight away. I fought three fights in 2024 with one hand—I was throwing the right hand in agony.

“Although it looked like things were going great, they weren’t. The hand is perfect now—I got it fixed.

“Hopefully, this is where I start to pick up momentum.”