Sparring Partner – Josh Taylor Responds to Stevie McKenna Call Out
Stevie McKenna and Tyrone McKenna have more than a second name in common.
The Monaghan welter is fast adopting some of the traits of the Belfast battler. Just like ‘The Might Celt’ the ‘The Hitman’ loves to throw down and to go to war – and similar to the 32-year-old southpaw, who will top a December 2 bill in the SSE Arena against Lewis Crocker, the Hennessy Sports fighter loves a call out.
Prior to his all-action and extremely entertaining stoppage win over Darren Tetley live on Sky Sports on Saturday, McKenna called for a fight with Florian Marku and also spoke of a Conor Benn fight.
The 26-year-old upped the anti on Saturday, calling out former undisputed world light welterweight champion Josh Taylor post his 14th career win.
He told Sky Sports: “Josh Taylor, let’s have a piece of that. Maybe we can get the fight on with Josh Taylor and Sky Sports. No better platform and it would be a good one.”
Unlike his callouts of ‘The Albanian King’ and Benn this one didn’t fall on deaf ears. One of Scotland’s greatest-ever fighters, who was last seen suffering defeat to Teofimo Lopez in June, responded, albeit not to positively.
He labelled McKenna a ‘sparring partner’ in a Tweet that also said: “Get that he is trying to make some noise and all. But, he’s a sparring partner. literally!”
get that he is trying to make some noise & all. But, he’s a sparring partner 😏🥊 literally! https://t.co/BuGEUfupbR
— Josh Taylor (@JoshTaylorBoxer) September 30, 2023
‘The Hitman’ and Taylor have sparred on numerous occasions previously and are said to be on good terms. The callout is a shooting-for-the-stars play by the Smithborough fighter, but he surmises the Scot may need an introduction to welterweight rather than go straight after the mega names at the weight.
Yeah we had some good sparring battles 😁 Hear your looking a wee warm up fight 😉 @SkySportsBoxing @boxxer @HennessySports https://t.co/uKzDwKvmTE
— Stevie McKenna (@stevie_mckenna) September 30, 2023
McKenna didn’t mention Marku after the victory but talk suggests that’s a fight Sky and Boxxer want to make.
