McKenna Vows to Take Over Middleweight and Bring Back GGG-Canelo Levels of Excitement
Aaron McKenna has vowed to take over the middleweight division and restore the excitement of the GGG-Canelo era after finally realising his lifelong dream of becoming a world champion.
The newly crowned IBF middleweight champion believes 160lbs has been crying out for a dominant figure since the days when Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez ruled the division — and he intends to become that man.
McKenna has spent years calling for the biggest fights at middleweight, frustrated by what he sees as a lack of meaningful activity and unification bouts.
Now, with a world title around his waist, the Monaghan man believes the division is there for the taking.
“I feel very strong at middleweight,” McKenna said. “The middleweight division is there to be taken over.
“It’s been dry for years since GGG [Golovkin] and Canelo [Alvarez] left it. So I said it again years ago, I think I’m going to be the man to take over.
“No one really believed me, and until you put in performances like that, then they start listening.
“In life you’ve got to prove yourself sometimes, and tonight I’ve done that.”
‘The Silencer’ is starting to make real noise and the kind of sounds fans love. He now wants to bring back the type of major fights that made the middleweight division one of boxing’s most celebrated weight classes.
“I’m going to be easy to find now because I have a belt,” McKenna said. “They’re all going to come out crawling looking for one now, so I want to unify.
“I said before the fight I want to be an active world champion and that’s exactly what I’m going to be. I don’t want this belt being inactive.
“It doesn’t matter who I’m fighting, just unify and if any of those world champions don’t want it, I’ll jump up to 168.”
For the Smithborough native becoming champion is not the destination — it is the beginning of his takeover.
“I just hope one of the other world champions will take on the fight, so we can clean up this mess of a division.”
It is a remarkable shift in position for the younger of two boxing brothers, who admits the magnitude of finally becoming a world champion has yet to fully sink in.
“This one’s going to take a while to seep in,” he said. “It’s 21 years in the making and for it to happen, I don’t know how long it’s going to take for this to seep in, that I’ve finally become world champion.
“I’ve been dreaming of this for my whole life. It’s honestly unbelievable. I can’t even describe it.”
