{"id":612310,"date":"2026-09-02T14:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/612310\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T14:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:12:09","slug":"mckenna-in-croke-park-dreamland-after-tough-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/612310\/","title":{"rendered":"McKenna in Croke Park dreamland after ‘tough career’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belfast welterweight Tyrone McKenna retired almost three years ago in the wake of his defeat to Lewis Crocker at the SSE Arena in his home town.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, his second coming will reach a glorious peak when he walks out in front of 80,000 people at Croke Park to square up to his old sparring partner Paddy Donovan on the Katie-Taylor Flora Pili undercard.<\/p>\n

McKenna was understandably downbeat after losing to Crocker in December 2023, but he swiftly reversed his decision to hang up his gloves and is very glad he did.<\/p>\n

He enjoyed a memorable night at Windsor Park last year when he beat Waterford native Dylan Moran on the Crocker-Donovan undercard, and is now preparing for the biggest occasion of his career at Jones’ Road.<\/p>\n

It’s the hottest ticket in town – so hot that even the fighters involved have had a scramble to get their hands on a few.<\/p>\n

“Usually, when they say sold out, they still have a few hundred each for each boxer. But this was completely sold out,” McKenna told RT\u00c9 Radio 1’s Today with David McCullagh programme.<\/p>\n

“The boxers on the card didn’t even get tickets for it. That’s how big the event is. That’s how quick it actually did sell. My family got tickets. My kids are going. My wife’s going. So they’re very excited. They’re very lucky because it was a very hard task to get some.<\/p>\n

“It’s an event that people are going to be talking about for decades. In 50 years, we’re going to be talking about Katie Taylor headlining Croke Park. Hopefully, I’ll put my stamp on the night and have had an unbelievable war with Paddy Donovan, got the win, and people will be talking about that as well as part of the night. It’s a historic event and something that’s unbelievable to be a part of.”<\/p>\n

“I have no excuses. I’ve had the best sparring, the best preparations. I’m ready to fight. I’m excited.”<\/p>\n

McKenna is the underdog against Donovan, an opponent he knows extremely well.<\/p>\n

“We’ve sparred each other about 100 times,” said. “He was my regular sparring partner for a while, a few years back. So we know each other inside out.<\/p>\n

“I know what he’s good at, he knows what I’m good at. He knows what I’m bad at and I know what he’s bad at. It’s just to see who’s improved the most in the last couple of years and who can get the tactics right.<\/p>\n

“I was over in Philadelphia in a world-class camp. I was sparring world-class fighters. It couldn’t have been any better. I have no excuses. I’ve had the best sparring, the best preparations. I’m ready to fight. I’m excited.<\/p>\n

“My last fight was in Windsor Park, which was 20,000 people. I remember walking out there and looking about and thinking, ‘this will never get topped, 20,000 people coming to my fight’. A year later, here I am in Croke Park, four times as much, 80,000 people. It’s mind blowing. It’s something you don’t even comprehend when you turn pro because Croke Park is so big. It’s unimaginable.<\/p>\n

“The only person really that could ever do that in this lifetime will be Katie Taylor. She’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of athlete. She’s remarkable.”<\/p>\n

\"Fighters
\nPaddy Donovan (L) and Tyrone McKenna face off at Vicar Street in Dublin<\/p>\n

McKenna, now 36, has been in the pro game for 14 years. It’s unforgiving terrain; a relentlessly difficult slog.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a tough career,” he admitted. “I wasn’t one of these fighters that came into the amateurs from the Olympics and was handed a career that was guided and an easy way to the top. I had to fight hard fights.<\/p>\n

“Every single fight I’ve took has been a very difficult fight for me and I’ve had to claim the rankings and work hard to get to where I am. I was retired three years ago after my defeat against Lewis Crocker. I came back and I’m so glad that I’ve come back because I got the chance to fight in Windsor Park and I’m getting the chance to fight in Croke Park.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a tough career, but it’s been a career that I’ve really enjoyed and I think I’ve gained a lot of fans from it.”<\/p>\n

It promises to be a special night at Croke Park. McKenna, like so many fighters, has a sense of gratitude and respect for Taylor who has managed to achieve an impossible dream.<\/p>\n

“I’ve known her since I was 14,” he said. “Since she’s laced up gloves, she’s been a trailblazer. She’s done stuff that people have deemed impossible.<\/p>\n

“The road she’s taken wasn’t a road before she took that road. You couldn’t say a bad word about Katie. She’s an idol to all kids, male and female, across Ireland – actually, across the world because she’s just a legend.<\/p>\n

“You’ll not hear me shut up about it. I’ll be in the bars until the day I die saying, ‘I fought in front of 80,000 people!’.”<\/p>\n

Watch Katie Taylor v Flora Pili in their undisputed World Super Lightweight title bout live on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player on Saturday from 8pm, listen live on RT\u00c9 2fm or follow a live blog on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and the RT\u00c9 News app<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belfast welterweight Tyrone McKenna retired almost three years ago in the wake of his defeat to Lewis Crocker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-612310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}