A sad night for Italian boxing at Dublin’s 3Arena, where middleweight Etinosa Oliha was comprehensively outpointed by hometown favorite Aaron McKenna, seeing his dream of becoming IBF world champion slip away. The main event of the show promoted by Dana White through his Zuffa Boxing therefore ended with an Irish triumph, as McKenna was declared the winner by unanimous decision on scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 117-111.
The two fighters approached the bout with the caution one would expect from men fighting for their first world title opportunity, and inevitably the opening three minutes were largely spent sizing each other up. McKenna’s numerous feints were particularly interesting: by pretending to throw his left jab, he would observe the reactions of “El Chapo” Oliha in an attempt to identify openings he could exploit later.
The Italian appeared to give all of us false hope by putting together an excellent second round in which he genuinely looked capable of pulling off the upset. Oliha landed twice in succession with straight right hands, then caught his opponent off guard by suddenly widening his trajectory and connecting with violent, explosive hooks to the temple. Judging by his body language, McKenna clearly did not appreciate them.
“Silencer,” as the extremely tall Irish middleweight is nicknamed, learned the lesson very quickly, however. Having realized how dangerous his opponent was, he immediately adopted the right strategy to neutralize him and take control of the fight.
McKenna relied on a considerable amount of holding and spoiling, engaging in a huge number of clinches during which he proved craftier and more agile than Oliha at landing the shots needed to win the rounds. Trapped by his opponent’s extremely long arms, the Italian lost his bearings and was no longer able to find the right range to unleash the dynamite right hand that had seemed capable of becoming a winning weapon.
McKenna’s left jab made his task even easier. Fast and accurate, it proved absolutely crucial to the effectiveness of the home fighter’s tactics. McKenna regularly beat “El Chapo” to the punch with that shot, taking away his attacking rhythm before crashing into him and initiating exhausting, prolonged periods of close contact.
By the halfway point, the Italian looked confused and frustrated. Although he had not been forced to absorb any particularly powerful punches, Oliha did not seem to have a clear idea of how to reverse the momentum of the fight, and his actions appeared to be the product of momentary improvisation rather than moves stemming from a well-defined strategy.
Our representative occasionally managed to free his arms from his opponent’s grip and land a few noteworthy punches, but his successes were too sporadic and were often neutralized by McKenna’s crafty habit of accelerating during the final 30 seconds of the rounds in order to convince the judges of his superiority.
After a particularly dominant ninth round from the Irishman, Oliha put together a determined and commendable tenth, although once again he found himself having to absorb his opponent’s initiative during the closing stages of the round.
As they entered the so-called championship rounds, both fighters were surely aware of the gap on the scorecards. Unfortunately, it was McKenna who managed to produce the stronger finish, fighting an extremely aggressive eleventh round and keeping his opponent at bay in the twelfth through his footwork and stiff-arm tactics.
There is no doubt about the identity of the winner. As for the margin, that depends on how one interprets two or three particularly chaotic and difficult-to-score rounds. Objectively speaking, however, it must be acknowledged that the only round Oliha won clearly and unequivocally was the second.
Aaron McKenna did not look like an elite fighter tonight, but he proved more capable than Oliha of steering the fight onto his preferred terrain and making adjustments as the bout progressed in order to take command. For the Italian, this was nevertheless an important experience that will help him grow both tactically and emotionally and, hopefully, provide him and his trainer Davide Greguoldo with the information they need to prepare as well as possible for his next major opportunity.