The Irishman has dedicated his entire life to the sport and has spent years traveling the world sparring tough men in hard gyms and inching closer and closer to a world title shot.

On August 8, The Ring’s No. 6-ranked middleweight gets his chance.

McKenna (20-0, 10 KOs) will box Italy’s unbeaten Etinosa Oliha (22-0, 10 KOs) for the vacant IBF 160-pound title. The fight will take place on the Zuffa Boxing 10 card at the 3Arena in Dublin.

A win would open up all sorts of possibilities for the 26-year-old.

Despite having learnt his trade in the most old-school way possible, McKenna has taken notice of the level of interest and money generated by crossover fights such as the recent clash between The Ring heavyweight champion, Oleksandr Usyk, and kickboxing legend, Rico Verhoeven, and the 2023 fight between two-time heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, and former UFC boss, Francis Ngannou.

McKenna’s sole dream and goal is to be recognised as the best middleweight on the planet but it hasn’t escaped his attention that, on July 11, a certain Irish mixed martial artist will end a five-year hiatus from the UFC octagon.

“I'm fighting for the world title and winning this world title is going to create massive fights and, in boxing nowadays, you never know,” McKenna told The Ring.

“You never know what fights can happen like these crossover fights. These big fantasy match-ups.

“You had Usyk recently there with Rico. A very close fight. His Excellency, Turki [Alalshikh] put that fight together and definitely proved it's a good model for boxing. It was a close fight. He was doing very well until he got stopped.

“Tyson Fury and Ngannou, that was a very close fight and, Conor McGregor, he's back.”

The "Notorious" McGregor (0-1) is, of course, no stranger to crossover fights. In 2017 he made the most high profile professional boxing debut of all time when he took on multi-weight world champion, Floyd "Money" Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs).

McGregor — a former amateur boxer — actually acquitted himself reasonably well but there was always the sense that Mayweather was toying with his prey. He steadily increased his control of the fight and stopped a tiring McGregor in the 10th round.

McKenna respects McGregor’s achievements in the UFC and will be watching his return against Max Holloway with one eye on the future.

“Yeah, another good fighting Irishman. A guy I grew up getting up in the middle of the night watching. He took over the whole UFC. He's a massive, massive name in Ireland. A fight like that is very possible,” he said.

“Conor McGregor, if he got the opportunity to fight for the middleweight world title, I couldn't see him turning it down. That's a massive fight to have in Ireland.

“It's good to see him back in good spirits. I wish him all the best for that fight. I hope he gets the job done.”