[2] At the 2006 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria he lost his semifinal to Russian eventual winner Artur Beterbiyev.
At the first Olympic qualifier the southpaw was upset by Ramazan Magomedov, at the second he beat four fighters including Kennedy Katende and made it to Beijing.
In the round of 16 he defeated Bahram Muzaffer, the Turkish boxer, before overcoming Brazilian Washington Silva in the quarter-final.
He lost to China's Xiaoping Zhang in the Olympic Final Gold Medal match in Beijing on Sunday 24 August 2008.
"The people of Ireland are uplifted by this outstanding achievement which continues a tradition of Irish Olympic boxing excellence dating back to 1952."
Cowen echoed these remarks by saying "Kenny fought a brave fight and gave everything in a wonderful bout of top class boxing".
He also pulled out of the undercard programme of Bernard Dunnes's World Title Fight Night at The O2 arena Dublin on Saturday 21 March, admitting that he would not be ready for it.
[11] He won the bronze medal at the 2010 European Amateur Boxing Championships at Moscow, Russia after he lost to Abdelkader Bouhenia from France in the semifinals.
[12] In February 2012 his long-time girlfriend Sharon McHugh, who was credited with helping him get back on the straight and narrow, called time on their 18-month relationship.
It emerged that Egan failed to restrict his movements when he returned from a boxing event in Essex, England in early August 2020.
Egan, a serving Dublin councillor at the time, subsequently resigned the Fine Gael party whip.
[14] In February 2014, Egan confirmed that he would be running in the 2014 local elections as a Fine Gael candidate in the Clondalkin area.