Colin Kenna (born 28 July 1976) is an Irish

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing * Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

, formerly a holder of the

British Boxing Board of Control The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) is the governing body of professional boxing in the United Kingdom. History The British Boxing Board of Control was formed in 1929 from the old National Sporting Club and is headquartered in Cardiff. ...

(BBBofC) Southern Area

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Male boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 2 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation an ...

title belt.

Career

Kenna made his professional boxing debut in 1991 against Alvin 'Slick' Miller, where he was knocked down in the first round but rallied and stopped Miller on a third-round

TKO A technical knockout (TKO) is a professional fighting term. TKO may also refer to: Sports * TKO, the name of a professional wrestling move referring to either the cutter or stunner variant * TKO Group Holdings, a combat sports company Music Ar ...

. A nine-fight undefeated streak followed with eight wins and a draw. The fights in this streak were all against journeymen fighters until he fought

Michael Sprott Michael Sprott (born 16 January 1975) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2018. At regional level, he held multiple heavyweight championships, including the British and Commonwealth titles in 2004; and challenged ...

for the Southern Area Heavyweight Title. Colin was defeated for the first time in this fight with a first Round KO. Three successive wins followed before Kenna faced

Audley Harrison Audley Hugh Harrison, (born 26 October 1971) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2013. As an amateur, he represented Great Britain at the 2000 Olympics, winning a gold medal in the super-heavyweight division and ...

's victim, Mark Krence, who at the time was highly rated and tipped as a future star. An injury to his elbow forced a corner retirement. Two weeks later in his hometown of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Kenna had a draw with the journeyman Paul King. After a period of inactivity, in June 2005 he won a points victory over former British and Commonwealth champion

Julius Francis Julius Francis (born 8 December 1964) is a British former professional boxer who participated in many noteworthy boxing matches in the mid 90s and 2000s. In 2007, he also participated in a mixed martial arts bout, having been a former European ...

. In his comeback fight, he fought Wayne Llewellyn for the Southern Area heavyweight title. Llewellyn had a 30–5 record including a victory over

and a defeat to world title challenger

Jameel McCline Jameel McCline (born May 20, 1970) is an American former professional boxer. He challenged for the world heavyweight title on an unprecedented four occasions, losing all four attempts to Wladimir Klitschko, Chris Byrd, Nikolai Valuev and Samuel P ...

. Kenna won the fight and became the new Southern Area heavyweight champion. Later, he fought in Germany against hotly tipped prospect Oleg Platov. The lack of training and preparation on Kenna's part showed and the referee stopped the fight in the fifth round. After the fight in Germany, Kenna spent under a year out of the ring, contemplating retirement or becoming a journeyman fighter. He returned in February 2007 with a points victory against Keith Long, but has not won a fight since. Kenna has lost seven consecutive fights, the first of which came when he was out-pointed by undefeated Moldovan-born Israeli Roman Greenberg (27-0) over eight rounds in London on 31 October 2007. He was in trouble by the sixth round, and on the floor in seventh from a straight right hand. The only time Greenberg saw any trouble came when his stool collapsed under his sixteen and a half stone frame at the end of fifth round. Kenna's defeats include losses to

Sam Sexton Sam Sexton (born 18 July 1984) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2005 to 2018. At regional level, he held multiple heavyweight championships, including the Commonwealth title from 2009 to 2010; the British title from 2017 ...

and Albert Sosnowski, who went on to become the Commonwealth and European champions respectively. He also lost to undefeated Indian Gurcharan Singh. On 11 April 2008, Kenna appeared in the "Prizefighter" competition on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

, but was knocked out by

Paul Butlin Paul Butlin (born 16 March 1976) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2002 to 2016, and has since worked as a bailiff. Professional career On 11 April 2008 Butlin appeared in the '' Prizefighter'' competition on Sky Sports ...

in 2nd round of the quarter final. In February 2010, Kenna fought for the Irish title against Coleman Barrett. Kenna managed to knock down Barrett in the second round but Barrett still won on points. Kenna fought for the Southern Area title once more against Larry Olubamiwo in May 2010, but was knocked out in the first round.

Personal life

Colin is the brother of former Republic of Ireland international footballer

Jeff Kenna Jeffrey Jude Kenna (born 27 August 1970) is an Irish football manager and former professional footballer. He played as a defender from 1989 until 2009, notably in the Premier League for Southampton, Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City. He was ...

and second cousin of football manager Pat Scully. His father Liam is a former Irish snooker international. Kenna currently resides in

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kenna, Colin 1976 births Living people Boxers from Dublin (city) Heavyweight boxers Prizefighter contestants Irish male boxers