In the wake of Tuesday's announcement that a $5 million reward has been offered by the US government for the arrest of senior members of the Kinahan crime family, more information continues surface about Daniel Kinahan's connections with the world of professional boxing.
A farcical press event took place yesterday over Zoom to promote Tyson Fury v Dillian Whyte, which will be held at Wembley next weekend. Fury was not asked for his thoughts about the US government's decision to sanction his one-time adviser. However one person did ask about Fury's golf game.
Kinahan's role in the sport of boxing - past, present and future - remains the subject of scrutiny from journalists.
Kevin Iole, who covers combat sports for Yahoo, spoke to Arum and was given some detail on the business relationship between Top Rank and Kinahan.
Arum claims to Iole that Top Rank paid Kinahan at least $1 million per fight for consultancy fees for four Fury fights between 2019-2021.
Those Fury fights are, according to Arum, two fights against Deontay Wilder as well as fights against Tom Schwarz and Otto Wallin.
This gives a sense of just how central Kinahan was to the negotiations of these fights. This would also suggest Top Rank was working with Kinahan as late as last October, which was when Fury-Wilder 3 took place.
Arum also alleges those payments were made to Hoopoe Sports, the sports agency/consulting company that was sanctioned this week by the US Treasury. The Hoopoe website lists Irish boxers Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan and Jamie Conlan as its clients. This week, an advisor to Michael Conlan told the Sunday World the Belfast boxer had never heard of Hoopoe and was working to have his photo removed from the Hoopoe (and MTK) website.
Daniel Kinahan: 'Bob, I’ve done some bad things in my life.'
Arum also revealed how Daniel Kinahan convinced him to collaborate.
“Kinahan called me and we had a long conversation. He has kids and he said he wanted to get out of that other stuff. He said to me, ‘Bob, I’ve done some bad things in my life. I admit that. But I’m not involved with that any more. I’m just trying to clean up my life and be a legitimate business man.’ I wasn’t involved in any of the things he might have done before and he was telling me he wasn’t doing anything.”
However...
“There came a time that we discovered that he might still have been involved in some nefarious activities. That was enough for us.”
Given how positively Arum spoke abpit Daniel Kinahan in the media in the past, this version of events is sure to raise an eyebrow or two.
There are more ramifications for the boxing from Tuesday's announcement at Dublin city hall. Yesterday, ESPN said it will no longer broadcast the MTK Fight Night with Gavin Gwynne from York Hall tonight. ESPN have been a broadcast partner for MTK since 2019.
Update: @espn+ will no longer stream the Friday MTK card from Wales, official tells @USATSportsPlus
— Lance Pugmire (@pugboxing) April 14, 2022
Tuesday's announcement will cast a long shadow over Fury's fight next weekend. Whether Fury will ever be asked in a public domain for this thoughts on the issue remains to be seen.
SEE ALSO: Bob Arum Has Really Changed His Tune On Daniel Kinahan
