By 
OMAGH’S Damien McKenna enjoyed a night to remember in Dublin’s RDS where he earned a first win in the Cage Warriors ranks.
The featherweight prospect, who lost his debut bout in the promotion last year to another of Ireland’s rising MMA stars, Keith Keogh, bounced back in style when forcing an early end to his clash with tough Brazillian, Pedro Silva. After suffering a nasty head cut following a stray elbow from his opponent, McKenna produced a controlled but dominant performance before delivering a cracking third round left hook to Silva’s body, which left his foe unable to continue.
“I knew I had him hurt early, but then I ran onto one of his elbows and in between the first and second rounds, the doctor was having a look at it,” McKenna explained.
“I didn’t want to push for the finish too much and then run onto another one of those elbows, even though he didn’t really land a punch the whole fight, and then lose the fight because of a cut. So I was still happy enough even though I could have gone for the finish earlier than I did. I wasn’t going to risk it but I was pleased with how I ended it because I haven’t really thrown many of them in my fights but that’s my specialty and anyone in Omagh MMA has felt one of those!”
Ahead of the fight, McKenna admits he did feel pressure to bounce back from the Keogh reverse, but having enjoyed a perfect pre-bout camp he arrived a the RDS in the right frame of mind on Saturday.
“I knew I had to win that fight, for sure,” he acknowledged.
“If you lose your first two fights on Cage Warriors – I have a five fight contract with them – they aren’t going to be too happy with that, so I knew I had to win it. But I wasn’t like ‘oh God, I have to win this fight’, the whole camp was about being really prepped, the focus was on me. I was present the whole camp, I didn’t let anything get to me and even during the walk-in, I felt completely different, I felt at home this time, which is how I normally feel.
“I felt at home on the big stage and even though this was a bigger fight in terms of pressure, I had less nerves and I felt better mentally, so I was very happy with that part. I have a lot more experience now, it’s something you can’t train and you can’t buy.”
Damien is looking forward to getting another fight in the near future, but it’s looking likely to be the early summer before he is back in the cage as he aims to recover from the cut and rest his hands after Saturday night.
