Dilip Kuner
WORLD heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury has reportedly cut his links with Irish gangland kingpin Daniel Kinahan.
Kinahan, who lived in a luxury villa in Estepona before moving to Dubai, is believed to control a €1 billion crime organisation. He has acted as an adviser to the British fighter for the past three years.
He was instrumental in brokering a two fight, £200million deal between Fury and Anthony Joshua, one of the most eagerly anticipated bouts in the history of the sport.
Two weeks ago, Fury praised Kinahan for his role in arranging the highly lucrative fight, leading to a fierce backlash.
Two weeks ago, Fury praised Kinahan for his role as a ‘negotiator’ in arranging the highly lucrative fight, leading to a fierce backlash.
Kinahan – who has no criminal convictions – has long sought to break into the boxing promotion business. He is thought to have put the money up to open the Macklin Gym Marbella (MGM) in 2012 with former Irish, British and European Middleweight Champion Matthew Macklin.
Its Puerto Banus location was a good fit for Kinahan when he based himself in Estepona.
Kinahan is the son of Irish underworld kingpin Christy Kinahan, known as ‘the dapper don.’
MGM quickly started to build a stable of top boxing talent and rapidly expanded its operations internationally
The gym even attracted top sports stars including Frank Bruno and Graeme Souness to promotions, raising its profile in the boxing world.
But it was not long before its criminal connections started to put MGM in the press for the wrong reasons.
A vicious Dublin turf war between rival drugs gangs spilled over into Spain, bringing bloodshed with it.
In 2014 Jamie Moore, a former European boxing champion and Sky boxing pundit, was shot outside Kinahan’s villa. Only a miracle allowed the athlete, who was training at MGM, to come out alive.
But that was just a sample of what was to come. Soon afterwards Gerard ‘Hatchet’ Kavanagh, the fearsome Kinahan debt collector, was killed.
Two hitmen dressed in black gunned him down with multiple shots as he sat outside Harmons pub in Elviria on the Costa del Sol.
The gunmen had calmly walked up and cold-bloodedly executed him, finishing him off with a shot to the head.
His son Jamie was at the time one of the most promising fighters at MGM.
Now Kinahan – who was named as the alleged leader of the Kinahan criminal organisation in an Irish police affidavit to Dublin’s High Court – has resurfaced at the pinnacle of the boxing promotion game.
However, only last week the sporting company KHK in Bahrain dropped its links to Kinahan just a month after hiring him as an adviser.
From his safe haven in Dubai where he rubs shoulders with the rich and powerful, Kinahan claims he has been the victim of a concerted campaign of vilification by the media which has an “agenda of publishing offensive articles” about him.
The controversy about Kinahan and his efforts to reinvent himself came under the spotlight earlier this month when Fury posted a video via Twitter praising Kinahan for his role in setting up the two bouts with fellow British heavyweight Joshua.
Fury took to social media to heap praise on Kinahan, but the actions of the crime boss in trying to erase his crime links, and involvement in one of the most murderous feuds here with the Hutch family which has led to 16 deaths, was met with widespread criticism.
Fury’s boxing promoter Bob Arum told the newspaper he had discussed the matter with Fury and decided Arum and his company Top Rank Boxing will handle future negotiations
“Over the weekend I’ve had a lot of conversations with Tyson Fury and what we both decided is that myself, Top Rank and Fury will do all negotiations for fights in the future.”
Tyson fury has yet to comment on the matter.
