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Taylor made match up- McKenna believes Pete Taylor can take him to the top

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Tyrone McKenna believes Pete Taylor will guide him to world title success.

The Belfast southpaw was one of a number of high profile domestic names to join up with the Irish-boxing.com Trainer of the Year winner in the lead up to Christmas – and is predicting a successful marriage.

Indeed, having watched Taylor from a distance and now worked with him up close and personal ‘The Mighty Celt’ believes his new trainer will not only guide him to Golden Contract victory, but lead him to world title success.

“I fully believe Pete is man to bring me to a world title in my career,” McKenna told Irish-boxing.com. “Obviously the Golden Contract is the first thing in my sights- and with [Taylor] in my corner I believe I have a great chance of winning it.”

Similar to best mate Tommy McCarthy, another recent Taylor converter, McKenna has been aware of Taylor from his amateur days, but was notably impressed with his work on the pro scene over the last 12 months or so.

After watching from afar and feeling it may be time for a change he made the leap.

“I’ve watched Pete for the last year building an unreal stable. I watched what he did on Instagram too. The man is an unreal coach a proper dedicated man when it comes to creating champions, so straight away I felt he was a perfect coach to approach and to really improve me as a fighter.

“I’m really excited to see how he can bring me further,” he adds before reflecting on the work the pair have already done together.

“The first few weeks have been great. All the lads down in Pete’s camp are legends and the training has been second to none. It’s really made me remember a lot of the things I have forgot from the High Performance Days.”

The tall southpaw returns to the ring on the February 21 when he will be hoping to secure a slot in the Golden Contract final.

The 29-year-old progressed to the semi finals by beating Mikey Sakyi in his most mature if not best performance to date.

That display and most of his big career wins have come under the guidance of Danny Vaughan. However, the child actor felt it time for a new director and switched from Glasgow to Dublin bringing along Tyrone McKenna with him.

“It’s a part of life, moves happen. [Myself and Danny] spoke over the phone after the fight, we spoke our minds, we remain friends, but we both agreed this was the right move at this stage of my career. And obviously with Tyrone McCullagh being my Siamese twin he had to leave as well. I cant go no where without him following.”

McKenna and McCullagh are close, indeed the former has a tattoo of the later on his leg, but McKenna and cruiserweight Tommy McCarthy go back that bit further – and the Belfast fighter is delighted to be back with his mate.

“Of course Tommy being my best mates it’s great to be back along side him. We grew up together winning everything in boxing and now for the first time to be proper stablemates. It’s special and its gona’ be a massive 2020 for us both.”

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Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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