McKenna stops top opponent to clinch maiden title

DAMIEN McKenna stopped top Hungarian featherweight, Armand ‘The Crane’ Herczeg at Chaos Fighting Championship in front of over 1,000 fans at Derry’s Millennium Forum on Saturday night to pick up the first title of his fledgling MMA career.

The featherweight bout was far from easy for the Omagh lad, who apart from being up against a vastly more experienced opponent, had to cope with the loss of his maternal grandfather, John Breslin, the day before the bout.

Despite that personal loss, McKenna had no thoughts of withdrawing from the fight and he’s glad he didn’t after such an impressive victory by way of an expertly timed armbar.

“I was cutting weight the morning before the fight and you can weigh in any time between 10am and 11am and at 10.30am I found out about my Granda, which made the weight cut even harder,” Damien explained.

“I was never going to pull out though because I wasn’t going to let down the people who bought tickets to come and see me and my Granda would be tell me not to be silly and to go ahead with it.

“And I’m so glad I did and hopefully it’s the first of many titles, it was some buzz!”

Herczeg is a former ISKA Irish, Clan Wars, ICO European and two time WTKA Irish K1 Kickboxing champion so as well as bringing plenty of experience to the party, he also brought the knowledge of how to win when it matters to the octagon on Saturday night.

Not that any of that phased OMMA’s McKenna who went about his business in style, ensuring his greater fitness and impressive skills paid dividends by ending the Hungarian’s challenge just 32 seconds into the second round with

“He’s the toughest test I’ve had in Ireland so far, the best I’ve beat,” McKenna acknowledged.

“Me and Ireland are at the higher end of the spectrum in Ireland, he’s a very good striker, having been a European kickboxing champion, but he’s very dangerous on the ground and he’s had five wins by submission, so he’s very, very tricky everywhere.

“But after the first round, which was 50-50, I finished him quickly in the second, which I thought I could because he was wrecked after the first round and I felt like I was only getting started.

“But that’s why I trained so hard and it paid off.”

With his first title now sealed, just a matter of weeks after he reached the quarter-finals of the European Championships in Italy, McKenna is hoping to add another title to his name in just over a week’s time when he returns to the ring against Craig McGrattan in Newry for the IUR belt.

Damien wishes to thank his OMMA coaches Gerry Poltorak and Bruce Irwin for their guidance in his career so far.