Fury ditches Kinahan from negotiations over all his future fights
Tyson Fury will no longer be represented by an alleged crime lord in negotiations over what would be the biggest fights in British boxing history against Anthony Joshua.
Less than two weeks after Fury announced that Daniel Kinahan had struck a two-fight deal for him to face Joshua for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world – provoking outrage and calls for a sporting and media boycott from Irish premier Leo Varadkar – the self-styled “Gypsy King” has agreed to distance himself from his adviser.
Fury was urged last night to ensure any contest now proceeded with “absolutely zero involvement” from Kinahan, who The Daily Telegraph
revealed last week had also negotiated the boxer’s triumphant World Boxing Council title fight with Deontay Wilder and was in the process of doing the same for the rematch. Indeed, Kinahan negotiated all three of Fury’s fights after helping him secure a deal with promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank and a reported $100million (£80 million) five-bout deal with ESPN and BT.
Arum told The Telegraph: “Over the weekend, I’ve had a lot of conversations with Tyson and what we decided is that myself, Top Rank and Tyson will do all negotiations for fights in the future. Whether it’s for Joshua, Wilder or anybody else.”
He added: “We’ve talked with Dan, who Tyson and I both love and admire and respect, and he understands it’s best the negotiations on Tyson’s side be handled that way. He only wants the best for Tyson.”
Kinahan, who co-founded the management company to which Fury signed ahead of his comeback from depression, binge-eating and drug and alcohol abuse that almost saw him take his own life, has no criminal record.
But Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau told its High Court in 2018 that he had “managed and controlled” the drug-trafficking operations of the Kinahan organised crime group. The following year, Europol identified the cartel as one of the main cocaine importers in Europe and as far away as Australia. And, just last month, Dublin’s Special Criminal Court accepted evidence the group was involved in serious offending, including “executiontype murders”, as well as trafficking of drugs and firearms.
It has also been reported that Kinahan has been banned from entering the United States.
Neale Richmond, a member of the Irish parliament and party colleague of Varadkar, welcomed Fury distancing himself from Kinahan, whom he accused of “seeking to whitewash a very concerning reputation through legitimising himself in the boxing world”.
A representative of Fury said she had nothing to add to Arum’s announcement. Lawyers for Kinahan – who have previously branded allegations against their client “grossly defamatory” – did not respond to requests for comment.