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Who is Daniel Kinahan and why is the Irish government so upset by next year's Fury-Joshua fight?

These are weird and feverish times in Live Event lockdown. Could news that world heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have finally agreed commercial terms for a two-fight deal next year justify the tag – ‘Greatest Boxing Match of All Time’?

But perhaps the hype is simply the coronavirus talking because, of course, Greatest Boxing Match of All Time would be to forget all of the history on which the sport is built and which has brought us this far: the Alis, Foremans, Fraziers, Louis’, Tysons, Marcianos and so on.

Currently Fury is the unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion and Joshua holds the IBF, WBA and WBO titles. Each fighter has either a mandatory or contracted bout to get through, hence the 2021 schedule.

That match up, which it is widely reported is likely to take place in Saudi Arabia, will be an unparalleled commercial bonanza, including for sales of official VIP Hospitality which is a significant revenue stream given this bout could easily be marketed as a ‘once in a lifetime’ event and priced as a ‘money can’t buy’ moment.

This was how Tyson Fury announced on his IG feed that those crucial commercial terms for a two-fight deal with Joshua had been agreed.

Note the MTK Global logo and Fury’s namedrop of ‘Daniel Kinahan’ as the key person who, in Fury’s estimate, helped make the deal.

As Fury said: ‘I’m just after getting off the phone with Daniel Kinahan. He’s just informed me that the biggest fight in British boxing history has just been agreed.’

‘Big shout out to Dan. He got this done, literally over the line. Two fight deal. Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua next year. One problem I just got to smash Deontay Wilder’s face right in in next fight and then we’ll go into the Joshua fight next year.

The video message almost immediately detonated a mini-political crisis in Ireland. Kinahan is based in Dubai but is Irish [Fury’s family are also Irish but he was born and raised in the UK].

The Irish Times quickly reported that the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs had contacted the UAE government about Kinahan’s involvement in the Fury and Joshua fights.

Speaking to the Dáil, the Irish parliament, last Thursday, prime minister Leo Varadkar told Labour leader Alan Kelly: ‘I can certainly assure you there has been contact between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the authorities in the United Arab Emirates about that matter.’

Kelly, who chose to not directly name Kinahan, had urged Varadkar: ‘Taoiseach [prime minister], our country has to intervene here.’

Daniel Kinahan wearing a hat and Freddie Thompson
Daniel Kinahan, in the cap, with ‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson, left, at the 2016 funeral of David Byrne 

The Labour leader said that ‘there’s an individual from our country who according to the High Court is a very senior figure in organised crime on a global scale, and according to CAB [the country’s Criminal Assets Bureau] has controlled and managed operations of the Kinahan organised crime group for some time.’

And there’s the rub. Although Daniel Kinahan has no criminal convictions, the Irish High Court ruled in 2018 that Kinahan controlled an organisation inherited from his father that was involved in drug and weapons smuggling on a global scale.

The Irish Times reported that Kinahan helped set up the MTK management company in Marbella before he moved to Dubai. The website Boxing Scene has reported that MTK has since been sold to new owners and Kinahan does not appear on the MTK company’s website.

But in an announcement last month, MTK heralded a tie-up with Bahraini KHK Sports, which lists Kinahan as a ‘special advisor’.

KHK Sports is funded by His Highness Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Sandhurst-educated fifth son of Bahrain’s King Hamad. His former wife, and mother of their two sons, was a daughter of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah who ruled the country from 2005 until his death in 2015.

According to the Times, Joshua’s representative, boxing promoter Eddie Hearn dealt directly with Kinahan.

‘Tyson Fury is promoted by Bob Arum at Top Rank and Frank Warren at Queensberry Promotions, but we were told by both those parties, and Tyson Fury himself, that for this fight we had to negotiate with his adviser, Daniel Kinahan,’ Hearn explained to The Times.

That raises the possibility that if Kinahan is somehow removed from the complex food-chain at the heart of all of these mega-fights, the economics or politics of the heavyweight fight itself may become too complicated. It’s well known in boxing circles that there is not too much love between Warren and Hearn.

As part of his efforts to convince people he’s not involved in organised crime, Kinahan claimed to The Irish Sun last month that he has been ‘vilified’, portrayed in a ‘false and damaging light’ and accused the media of having ‘evident agendas’. Kinahan claimed to the newspaper, ‘I’m just an Irish businessman’.

In 2018 the Irish public broadcaster RTE interviewed the Irish Daily Star’s long-time crime reporter Irish Daily Star Michael O'Toole about the intense gangland war between the Kinahan and Hutch families

According to the Irish Times, news of Kinahan’s role in the Fury-Joshua fight was met with dismay among gardaí, the Irish police, as well as youth workers in inner city Dublin where many families have been devastated by gang activities.

‘This legitimises gang activity,’ said Eddie Darcy who heads the Solas Project which works with children from inner city communities.

‘We’ve always tried tell the kids most people in the drugs trade are dead or in prison by 30. But youngsters are very quick out with “Well look at Daniel Kinahan, he’s got millions and he’s never done a day in prison”. And that’s all true.’

On Wednesday, graffiti appeared near the UAE’s Dublin embassy stating ‘Dubai staff in danger’ and ‘Get cancer out of Dubai’. Similar graffiti recently appeared near the Irish offices of Sky, which has broadcast several fights involving Kinahan-associated boxers.

Cover of Irish Daily Star with Kinahan
The Irish Daily Star front page. The newspaper has pledged not to cover any aspect of the fight if Daniel Kinahan’s involvement continues.

In the UK and elsewhere coverage was much more muted, with the Daily Telegraph referring to him as a ‘sometimes controversial figure during his time as a Dublin businessman’.

‘It’s fair to say the UK media has perhaps been slow to realise exactly who this guy is,’ chief sports correspondent with the Times of London Matt Lawton said. ‘We’re very quickly having to do our homework on this guy, much of which we’re having to learn from our colleagues in Ireland.’

A look inside the official VIP Hospitality lounge that was constructed for the Anthony Joshua v Andy Ruiz ‘Clash on the Dunes’ fight near Riyadh last December which Joshua won unanimously

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Charlie Charters is a former rugby union official and sports marketing executive turned thriller writer whose debut book Bolt Action was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2010.
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