SMITHBOROUGH WELTERWEIGHT AARON McKenna scored his third straight stoppage victory on the ninth annual Big Fighters, Big Cause charity fight night in his adopted hometown of Santa Monica last night.

The 18-year-old – both Ireland and Golden Boy Promotions’ youngest professional fighter – earned a TKO3 of Floridian Darrel Harris, who was stopped on his stool after a three-round beatdown.

McKenna caught Harris off-balance and dropped him with a left hook in the second, and went to town on a cut that had opened over Harris’ eye in the third before the referee called a halt to proceedings.

It was probably just as well, too: Harris, naturally smaller than his teenage opponent, looked a beaten man as he retreated to his corner at the end of the third, slumping over the ropes as he awaited his stool.

Pic: Lina Baker Lina Baker Lina Baker

“When I saw the blood, I wanted to go after him even more,” said McKenna after improving his record to 4-0(3KOs). “Though, I thought I was going to stop him in the next round. It was a good learning experience.”

Sugar Ray Leonard, for whose charity foundation the fight bill was raising funds, watched on as McKenna delivered a composed and comprehensive thumping of his American opponent.

‘The Silencer’ has now scored three successive stoppage victories in as many months after mincing Jose Palacios and Keasen Freeman in March and April respectively.

The former European Schoolboys champion is now likely to move up to the six-round distance, and could have as many as five more fights before the end of 2018.

‘I met Paulie Malignaggi in the airport. I told him: ‘If Conor won’t fight you, I will”