I talked to Tyrone McKenna a few weeks ago ahead of his big fight with former sparmate Paddy Donovan in Dublin’s historic Croke Park.
There has always been so much value, for me, of taking yourself out of your comfort zone in camp and paying the price, and often that means travelling and often that means travelling to America.
It’s different out there, as McKenna eloquently describes.
Here, we speak in the midst of his camp ahead of his crunch crash on Saturday.
Hey Tyrone, thanks for doing this. Do you feel it’s another level, going to Philadelphia to prepare?
Yeah, it’s a different level. The last few years, I think, I’ve kind of just picked the easy way, the easy camps back home, and I’m training. It’s still hard training back home, but when you go away, you come over to Philly, it’s just a different level.
I’m sparring some world-class fighters. I’m in the gym with Boots, Andy Cruz, some unbelievable world champions. Bozy is a world-class coach, so the training’s just next level. It’s really, really tough, but it’s the best camp that I could get myself.
What made you decide to go out there, and why specifically Philly?
Bozy actually phoned me. I started off my career in Bozy’s gym years back. Twelve years ago. I had about three fights with him before he was even a major name in coaching. Before Boots was even known, he wasn’t even pro at the time, and he had me boxing absolutely unbelievable. He had me quite possibly in the best form I ever was in. So when he phoned me just before this fight was announced, he said he wants me back over.
He thinks that he can get me the win. He believes in me. He knows what he’s doing.
He can bring out the best in me, and I thought, you know what? This is a massive opportunity. It’s a historical night, and when I get this win, it catapults me into massive, massive fights.
So I want to give myself the best opportunity possible. I thought coming over here, being away from my family again, being away from my kids, just focusing on boxing, being in a camp where it’s tried and tested… There are world champions in there.
There are some of the best fighters in the world in that gym, and Bozy is an unbelievable coach. So I think this is my best chance to be part of that.
Getting up, I’ll be sore. I’ll be working very hard. I’ll be doing weights.
I’ll be doing sprints. So I’ll not be feeling fresh every day. So there are days that I’ll spar shit.
But sparring, as long as you’re learning, you’re learning. And as long as the sparring opponent is better than your opponent that you’re fighting, it fills me with confidence. I can’t get any better sparring out here.
It’s perfect. I’m so confident going into this fight that Paddy isn’t as good as my sparring partners. Even some of the people you wouldn’t even know are over here.
Philly is just a boxing city. It’s a real tough city. Their average boxer would probably be British champion over in the UK.
They’re very, very tough places. Spars are very, very like a doghouse. You’re shouting at each other.
You’re giving each other shit during the rounds. I’m just out of sparring right now. Me and my sparring partner talking shit the whole time.
Giving each other shit throughout the whole rounds. So yeah, that’s just a different vibe out here. And I think you need to go through a kind of tough, tough sparring to get you ready for the fights.
I’m going to walk into this fight very confident and knowing that this guy is not as good as my sparring partners. It’s not going to be as tough as my sparring partner.
How far out of your comfort zone are you in terms of living?
I’m hating life. I’m hating every day. That’s where it’s going. I’m counting down every day to go home.
It’s just tough. It’s hard being away from the kids and the family. It’s hard to go into this gym.
Like, I’ve come from gyms back home where I was only sparring, maybe six or seven spars at camp. I’m sparring three times a week over here, every single week. It’s tough, tough work.
And it’s not just easy spars. This is hard, hard work. So yeah, there’s no comfort in this at all.
Like, I haven’t got an easy day. I’m dreading every single day. But it’s for a purpose.
It’s to get me in the absolute best shape. And I know I’m so confident I’m going to be in unbelievable shape on September 5th. There’s not going to be any what-ifs after this fight.
I’ve done absolutely everything I can do to win this fight. And I believe in myself. I’ve come on leaps and bounds.
And the change in me is massive. I think I’m going to shock a lot of fighters, or a lot of people, during this fight. I think people on the inside think, ‘He’s a bit washed up, and he’s passed it, and he’s not that good anymore.’
They’re going to be shocked.
Has it made you think about, ah, if I’d done this four or five years ago?
I wish I had done it 10 years ago. But then again, would I have been where I was if I did? It’s hard to say. Obviously, I was getting the fights back home. I mean, if I was over here, would I be getting fights for an American? Would it have been different? So I can’t really complain about my career.
My career’s been unbelievable until now. So it’s a change I needed for this fight. It would have been great to have stuck with Bozy from the start because he’s an unbelievable coach.
But I can’t regret my career. I’ve had an unbelievable career so far.
And you’ve got this underrated gauntlet of fights that you’ve been on. Like the last 10 or 12 have all been against very good fighters.
I think people, a lot of people, sleep on the people I fight. I always, as I’ve said, I want big fights or no fights. I’m not one of these guys that gets beaten and has three or four journeyman fights and then fights another big fight. I fight big fight after big fight.
Back to back to back, always. I want to get in. I want to be worried in my comps.
I want to have to get up in the morning. I know I have to put it in the gym or I’m going to get beat. I don’t want to be in a camp where I go, I can slack because I’m going to win this fight.
That’s not what I’m in boxing for. I’m in boxing to test myself in every aspect in life. I don’t want to be away from my family for a journeyman.
If I’m going away, I want to be away for a reason. And yeah, so I love being in big fights. I love being involved in big fights.
I love testing myself. Seeing how good I am.
And I was there in Waterford for possibly the best two-round fight I’ve ever seen, you against Dylan Moran.
And do you know what? Going out, that wasn’t the game plan, but sitting there before, and I’ve spoken on this before, I genuinely didn’t sleep the night before. I don’t know what happened, but I could not sleep for the life of me. And then I was getting in my own head.
‘You’re not going to sleep tonight. You’re not going to sleep tonight.’ And I didn’t.
I didn’t get one minute of sleep. And then I tried to sleep during the day. Same thing happened.
It was just in my own head and I couldn’t sleep. So going into that fight, I had five rounds maximum in me. And I said to myself, I need to go out, pile the pressure on, stop this guy as quick as possible, because if this goes past four or five rounds, I’m beat.
So I went out bombing. Thankfully, I got him out in two rounds, but if I’d have gone any longer, I’d have been in trouble.
I think, you know, consensus probably had you down as the favourite in both fights against Dylan, right? Which is fair, but going into this one with Paddy, obviously they’ll certainly have you down as the underdog.
There’s no pressure.
I had a lot of pressure on Dylan because a lot of people expected me to blow him out of the water. And at the end of the day, you’re in a fight, so anything can happen.
So I was in my head, and it was like, I need to win this fight, and there was a lot of pressure in that fight, whereas this fight, everyone’s written me off. Everyone.
I don’t realise, you know, how hard of a bastard that I am. Like, I’m out here. I’m training my bollocks off.
I’m on the other side of the world. I put absolutely everything in this fight. No one should write me off.
I’m very confident. As I said, there’s no pressure on me. There’s all the pressure on him.
He’s number one in the world. He’s this future star of Irish boxing, or an Irish star of boxing now. I’m just this old man that people think is washed out.
So it’s lovely to have the pressure like that, to have people really doubting you, to have the bookies not giving you a chance, because I know for a fact that this is a winnable fight for me.
Have you done much with Paddy in the past?
I’ve sparred Paddy about 100 rounds. I’ve sparred Paddy about 50 times, so more than 100 rounds. We know each other inside out. But I wouldn’t read into spars.
We sparred each other for about four years solid. So there were times where he was in camp, and I was out of camp, so he’d probably got the better of me in those spars. There’s spars where he was out of camp, I was in camp, I was getting the better of him in those spars.
There’s spars where I was hungover and sparring him. There’s spars where he was probably hungover and sparring me.
I don’t think we ever sparred when both of us were in camp for a fight, to be honest. So it’s hard to read spars because you don’t know where people are at in their journey. How fit they are, how sharp they are.
Are they even taking it seriously? You actually can’t read spars. What I do know is we know each other’s faults, we know each other’s weaknesses, we know each other’s strengths. And I know he’s very good.
I don’t doubt that. I know how good Paddy is. But he is beatable.
And I’m confident in exploiting his weaknesses.
What do you think of his sort of Jekyll and Hyde performances against Crocker?
Yeah, well, I think Lewis made it easy the first fight. He didn’t know what to expect. And he kind of sat up perfectly for Paddy Donovan.
That’s the kind of style Paddy likes – is what Lewis was giving him. And I think Lewis came back, read the game plan from the first fight, and came up with a new game plan. And it worked a treat for him.
So, but yeah, it’s completely different. Lewis and me, we’re completely different fighters. So I don’t read into the fights previously.
I mean, he could have had an off day against Lewis the second time. Something could have happened or whatever. So you never know what it is.
I’m just preparing for the absolute best Paddy Donovan there is. I’m sure he’s preparing for the best Tyrone McKenna.
Is there a best fighter that you’ve faced so far in the pros?
Harlem Eubank was very, very good, I think. But it’s hard to say because sometimes your camps go better than other camps, so your fights are easier or harder.
I think with that fight, I didn’t spar enough. I wasn’t as sharp as I should have been in that fight. So Harlem Eubank was on his game that day.
He’s very fast, so it was a tough fight for me that night. But my favourite fight was Jack Catterall, even though I got beat.
It kind of announced me on the world stage. No one really knew me before then. Everyone thought I was going to get stopped and I gave it to Jack Catterall in a war. People loved it. I was only beat by a point.
I was put down two or three times that fight. I only lost by a point.
And I loved it. I loved announcing myself on the world stage that night.
What do you think of this occasion that you’re going to be a part of with Paddy, Croke Park, Katie Taylor, the whole thing?
Unbelievable. As I said in a few interviews, you would never have dreamed of us. It’s too big to dream. It’s huge.
It’s Croke Park. It’s the biggest stadium in Ireland. The last boxing event was Muhammad Ali.
That’s how long ago boxing was in that place. So you never would have thought, ‘I’m going to be boxing in Croke Park. That’s my dream.’
Because it’s nobody’s dream. Unless you’re an absolute legend like Katie Taylor. That’s the only person in Ireland who could ever achieve something like this, I guess.
And to be part of this is massive. There was everyone in Ireland queuing up to fight in this show. Apart from me, I didn’t even step up.
I didn’t even think I could get on the show. So I wasn’t even thinking about it. I genuinely was like, there’s no chance.
I’m trying to get other fights on different shows. And then out of the blue, my manager just texted me here. ‘It looks like you could be on the show.’
And I was like, ‘Fucking hell.’ And trying to keep it secret for three weeks, it was killing me.
And I was worried. I still didn’t believe it when I got told until he was saying it’s sealed.
I was still doubting. I was like, ‘Is it actually happening?’ Because every other boxer is saying they’re on it. We all can’t be on it.
So someone’s lying. So when I got the phone call to come down to the press conference, that’s when I knew it was definitely on. And honestly, it’s beyond my dreams.
It’s something I’ll talk about. I’ll be the new Carl Froch. I’ll be in the bars. I’ll be telling absolutely everyone, ‘Do you know I boxed in front of 80,000 people?’
That’s going to be my new line to everyone. I’ll be drinking on this for the rest of my life.
I’m just buzzing. I’m buzzing to be part of it.
(Main picture Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing, the remainder from McKenna’s Instagram)