For rising Irish boxing star Aaron McKenna, the path to his first world title shot began with an unexpected ringside spectator that would turn into an unlikely cross-industry friendship. Now, on the cusp of the biggest fight of his career, he is leaving the door open for his famous fan to join him in Ireland.
McKenna and his older brother Stephen cut their teeth as young professional boxers during early training stints in Los Angeles, where daily grueling sparring sessions were the norm. The pair, both naturally competitive, pushed each other to the limit in every round, turning their routine training into high-stakes contests. That dynamic shifted unexpectedly in 2018, when global rap superstar Kendrick Lamar wandered into the gym after wrapping his own workout just as the McKenna brothers stepped into the ring for eight rounds of technical sparring.
“Me and Stephen looked at each other straight away,” Aaron McKenna recalled in recent interviews. “We’re both super competitive, so having someone of his stature watching just made us turn it up another notch.” Lamar stayed through the full eight rounds, and after the session ended, he struck up a conversation with the two young Irish fighters. The pair hit it off immediately, with McKenna noting that the Grammy-winning rapper was far from the arrogant celebrity many might expect.
“He’s a real nice fellow, really down to earth, no arrogance or nothing,” McKenna said. The run-in turned into repeated encounters, with McKenna, who was living in California full time at the time, crossing paths with Lamar regularly at the gym.
That friendship soon extended beyond the four walls of the training facility. When McKenna booked a pro bout at the Fantasy Springs Casino, more than four hours outside of Los Angeles, Lamar made the drive to attend. Just moments before McKenna was set to walk to the ring from the small Irish village of Smithborough, County Monaghan, Lamar knocked on the door of his dressing room to wish him luck.
“For someone of his magnitude to come in and wish me luck just shows how good of a person he is,” McKenna said. That night, McKenna delivered a standout performance, scoring a second-round knockout to extend his early professional winning streak. The two stayed in contact after the fight, until the Covid-19 pandemic forced McKenna and his family to return to his native Ireland in 2020.
In the years since, Lamar’s profile has only soared higher. In 2025, he took home five Grammy Awards for his viral hit *Not Like Us* before headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, cementing his status as one of the biggest music stars on the planet. Meanwhile, McKenna has steadily climbed the professional boxing ranks, working his way to a long-awaited world title opportunity.
When Lamar first watched him spar in that Los Angeles gym, McKenna was just a teen with a handful of pro fights under his belt. Now 26, he is set to step into the ring in Dublin this August to challenge Italian fighter Etinosa Oliha for the vacant IBF middleweight world title, the biggest bout of his young career.
“I’m starting to come into my prime years,” McKenna told BBC News NI. “This is where my career has really taken off. My next fight is for the world title, so I’m hitting the big stage now.”
McKenna is currently putting the final touches on his training camp at the McKenna family’s own gym in Monaghan, with top sparring partners flying in from the United Kingdom and the United States to prepare him for the title clash. When asked if any special guests are expected, the Irish contender extended an open invitation to his old friend.
“Kendrick is always welcome,” he said. “An open invitation anytime. Maybe he’ll come to the fight.”