McKenna has the chance not only to become his country’s fourth middleweight belt holder in history but also the eighth world champion from the island since the turn of the century.

Not including WBA ‘regular’ champions who sat below a ‘super’ champion (sorry Bernard Dunne and Brian Magee), three world champions have come from the Republic of Ireland while another four hail from north of the border. So, ahead of McKenna’s bid to become Ireland’s No. 8 this century, we take a look at those who came before him in descending chronological order from the date they won their first world title.

Limerick southpaw Lee won the WBO middleweight title via a stunning come-from-behind stoppage victory over overwhelming favourite Matvey Korobov in Las Vegas on December 13, 2014. One of Irish history’s hardest hitters, Lee then drew with Peter Quillin in his first defense before losing the belt to Billy Joe Saunders a year and six days after winning it.

Belfast favourite Frampton won his first world title on a memorable but freezing cold night in his home city when he widely outpointed Kiko Martinez on September 6, 2014. His title reign would include victories over Chris Avalos, Alejandro Gonzalez and Scott Quigg. He then moved up to featherweight and outpointed defending WBA champion Leo Sant Cruz in New York to become Northern Ireland’s first two-weight world champion in July 2016.

Not too long after Frampton’s victory over Santa Cruz, his fellow Belfastman Burnett clinched his first world title via unanimous decision over Bristol, England’s Lee Haskins on June 10, 2017. Then, just four months later in the same ring at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena, he unified the division by outpointing Zhanat Zhakiyanov to claim the WBA’s 118-pound title too.

Not only is Taylor Ireland’s only ever undisputed champion but the all-time-great from Bray managed to do it at both lightweight and junior-welter. She won her first world title on October 28, 2017 when she beat Anahi Ester Sanchez in Cardiff. From then on, Taylor has been belt-collecting. The IBF lightweight title followed against Victoria Noelia Bustos six months later before she beat Rose Volante for the WBO strap in March 2019. She controversially outpointed Delfine Persoon at Madison Square Garden to become undisputed on June 1, 2019, a card topped by Andy Ruiz Jr’s shock victory over Anthony Joshua. She then repeated the trick up at 140 pounds when she beat Chantelle Cameron for all the marbles in their Dublin rematch on November 25, 2023.

Portlaois southpaw Doheny joined Taylor and Burnett as reigning world champions in August 2018 when he claimed the same IBF super-bantamweight belt once held by Carl Frampton. The victory was even more remarkable given he traveled to Tokyo and unseated defending champion Ryosuke Iwasa via unanimous decision at Korakuen Hall. In doing so, Doheny also became only the second fighter from the UK or Ireland to win a world title in Japan after Wayne McCullough had done so against Yasuei Yakushiji in 1995.

For years, Belfast’s Anto Cacace was one of the UK and Ireland’s most under-appreciated fighters but he finally got his rewards in May 2024 when he stopped Joe Cordina at Kingdom Arena, Riyadh to become IBF junior-featherweight champion. However, he would end up vacating the title without defending it before he claimed his second belt at the weight by beating another Brit in James "Jazza" Dickens for the WBA title in Dublin on March 14.

The fourth representative from Belfast on this list, Crocker became welterweight champion in the first ever world title fight between two men from Ireland when he beat Paddy Donovan on points to claim the IBF title at Windsor Park in September 2025. Donovan had been controversially disqualified while leading on all three cards in their initial encounter so was a huge favourite when the rematch was made for the IBF belt. But Crocker made a mockery of the odds, dropping Donovan twice en route to a split decision victory. He did, however, lose the belt to Liam Paro in his first defense.