Etinosa Oliha, from the ring in the square to the World Cup match

To appreciate the prestige of the IBF middleweight world title, one need only glance at the roll of honour, where one finds super-champions such as Marvin Hagler and Bernard Hopkins. Times have changed; today’s leading contenders are Aaron McKenna, an Irishman from Smithborough (County Monaghan), and Etinosa Oliha, from Turin, the son of parents of Nigerian origin. Tonight, at the 3Arena in Dublin, Zuffa Boxing 10 (live on Sky from 8 pm) will host the event, which culminates in the bout to award the currently vacant title. Why? The title was stripped from Janibek Alimkhanuly last March due to a breach of anti-doping regulations and his subsequent inability to defend the belt within the stipulated timeframe.

In Italy, it is Giovanni De Carolis – WBA super-middleweight world champion from January 2016 until 5 November of the same year – who has been missing such a prestigious title. And Etinosa Oliha can try to restore some lustre to the noble art in our country. Let’s start with Mc Kenna. Twenty professional bouts, twenty wins. Ten of these by knockout. So he’s not a brawler. Nicknamed ‘The Silencer’, he heads into the most important fight of his career in superb form. At the end of April, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, he beat Liam Smith on points, sending a very strong message to the entire weight class. He’s playing for his big chance on home soil, in front of a crowd there solely for him. ‘But none of them will step into the ring,’ our very own Etinosa wisely remarked.

Last summer, the young man from Turin, who cut his boxing teeth in Asti, was forced to take a break due to a problem with his retina. However, at the end of 2025, in Berlin, he fought and won convincingly (technical knockout) against Ivan Njegac, earning himself the chance to be in Dublin tonight. Oliha is also undefeated as a professional: 22 out of 22. And, like Mc Kenna, he has ten wins before the final bell. Not a huge number for either of them, suggesting that a knockout punch is not one of their strengths and hinting at a bout that will require great focus throughout all 12 scheduled rounds. Mc Kenna is known for a good jab and comes from a family with a strong boxing tradition. His brother is a fellow boxer; his father, Fergal, was a boxer and is now his trainer. For him, boxing was therefore a natural choice. Not so for Etinosa Oliha, who was instead struck by inspiration on the way to Asti – the town where his mother worked – when he spotted a hanging punching bag during the ‘Sport in Piazza’ event. The youngster was 14 years old and, among the stalls dedicated to various martial arts, he glimpsed his future. They told him to visit the gym the next day and that they’d fit him with gloves. He’s practically never taken them off since.

It’s a wonderful message, containing an invitation: keep organising events like this; they always inspire young people. Etinosa lacks that knockout punch, but he’s certainly not short of tactical intelligence or the ability to read a fight. Credit is also due to the work of his coach, Davide Greguoldo – one of the finest in Italian boxing and entirely self-taught. There is no record of him in official boxing matches. He ‘learnt’ the art from books, travelling the world to observe those who would become not only his colleagues but also sources of inspiration. Greguoldo became not just a coach, but also a big brother. Etinosa turned professional at the age of 18 and, after eleven fights, became Italian champion. Then, without ‘killing the father’, but through a courageous decision, he chose to have his interests managed by a major agency such as Agon, which often arranged for him to fight in Germany. The people at Agon – but above all Oliha – realised that separating the two would not be a good idea, and even today Greguoldo will be in his lad’s corner.

Etinosa Oliha, by his own account, draws inspiration from Floyd Mayweather for his cunning, his defence and his ability to read the fight. These are qualities that the young man from Piedmont certainly possesses, though perhaps not quite to the same level. They call him ‘el Chapo’ because his boxing style is similar to that of the Mexicans (fortunately, the drug lord has nothing to do with it) – in other words, he strikes and retreats. In his life, he has also worked as a mechanic, an electrician and a lifeguard. He dreams of unifying the middleweight title. If he really wants to do that, tonight must be the start.