Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
Kinahan undisputed king of the sportswashers
Power in boxing gives drug lord global clout
THE most significant figure in the history of Irish sport never kicked a ball at any kind of serious level.
He wasn’t an Olympian, and never had aspirations to become one.
He had an interest in horse racing, but only as a punter.
And he has no athletic attributes that anyone knows about.
But the 44-year-old former furniture shop owner from Dublin carries more clout than any Irish person ever has on the global sporting stage.
How many truly global sports are there?
Soccer is the obvious one. Rugby? Not at all, it’s only played at a serious level in fewer than 15 countries.
Basketball and athletics are on the list, and boxing is right up there too.
Anywhere you go, you will find boxing clubs — from major cities like London, New York and Sydney to small villages in remote parts of Africa and Asia.
Over 200 countries compete internationally in amateur boxing. At last year’s World Championships, medals went to boxers from Cuba, Kazakhstan, the USA, Ireland, Armenia, Australia, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines and Chinese Taipei among others.
Try and find another sport with such a global spread of top performers, and you’ll struggle.
At professional level, it’s a similar story. There are current world champions from Ukraine, Belgium, France, Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Thailand and the Dominican Republic as well as many of the countries mentioned earlier.
Heroes
This is a huge sport with local heroes everywhere.
So the fact that Daniel Kinahan — a 44-year-old former furniture shop owner from Dublin — is world boxing’s Mr Big should give us pause.
Is that really the case? Is he really that powerful?
Well, these are just some of the things that have been said about Kinahan since the turn of the year.
“The reality is that 80 per cent of the big fights happen because of Daniel Kinahan.”
“He is the most powerful man in the sport of boxing now.”
“Nothing happens without Daniel Kinahan having a say.”
Sandra Vaughan is the former CEO of MTK Global — the company owned by Kinahan for many years, and he still acts as an “advisor’’ to many of their fighters.
Professional boxing has gone down the road of moving away from traditional media and embracing podcasters and YouTubers.
Some of them are actually financed by various boxing bodies, so hard questions aren’t likely to be on the agenda.
In 2020, Vaughan gave an interview to IFL TV, a YouTube outfit with close ties to MTK.
At one stage, she talked about the perception of Kinahan in Ireland and, especially, by the Irish media.
Proud
“They are going to have to at some point acknowledge the fact that, as I say whether they like it or not, would you not be proud that someone from inner city Dublin is actually sitting at the table with that level of organisation — making fights?
“For Ireland, would you not be proud of that; would you not be proud that someone has got out of that inner city life and made a huge success?”
So there you have it. Vaughan seems to want us to view Kinahan as a working-class hero made good.
Let’s look at his background, then. Kinahan is the son of Christy, a drug dealer who made a fortune from selling heroin — and who has criminal convictions in three different countries.
Vaughan is right, the Kinahans are from inner-city Dublin, but we know that Christy didn’t make his money from selling cabbages off a cart on Moore Street.
As for Daniel, he has been named in the High Court as the “controller and manager” of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 10 years, you are well aware of who he is and the accusations that have been made against him.
This is a time when sportswashing has become fashionable, and where it’s equally fashionable to call out sportswashing.
Livescore have even seen fit to stop carrying Russian football results due to that country’s assault on Ukraine.
There’s an argument that boxing invented sportswashing, and it all goes back to Frankie Carbo — maybe the most significant figure in the rise of the pro game.
Prison
He was described by Budd Schulberg — the writer of Oscar winner ‘On The Waterfront’ — as “the Mob’s unofficial
Commissioner for Boxing’’.
But Carbo was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison, and it was his involvement in boxing corruption that brought him to justice.
This week, Kinahan has been more prominent in the headlines than at any time for a long time.
On Tuesday, the Fight Disciples podcast discussed last weekend’s controversial light-welterweight world title fight between Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall.
They pointed out the curious fact that Kinahan acts as an advisor to both fighters.
A day later, the presenters of the podcast read out a statement that had been sent to them by Kinahan.
You might have expected an angry response from the Dubliner. Not a bit of it. Instead, Kinahan made it clear that he wants to be the white knight that cleans up boxing.
“Some people have made serious allegations about my involvement in Saturday’s fight.
“That is why I am happy to invite scrutiny. I’ve nothing to hide,’’ worte Kinahan.
“I’ll answer any questions asked of me and it is incumbent on others to do the same.
“Boxing needs to change and I want to play my part in safeguarding the future of the sport.
“We need greater transparency to ensure fairness for fighters and respect for fans.”
Then, on Thursday, James English — a podcaster and YouTuber — announced that he had recorded an exclusive interview with Kinahan.
English has been vocal in the past in his support for the Dubliner’s involvement in the sport.
Amateur
In a week’s time, in a boxing ring in Nottingham, Michael Conlan — the only Irishman to win a world amateur title — and Leigh Wood will step through the ropes to do battle for the WBA world featherweight title.
Conlan is still listed on MTK’s website as one of their boxers. His brother, Jamie, had a spell as Vice President of the company.
Conlan is trained by Adam Booth, who is on the MTK payroll. MTK signed Wood in an advisory deal last summer. Ben Davison, his trainer, has worked for MTK for s o me time.
It has been widely reported that Kinahan helped make this fight happen. His fingerprints are all over it.
Would you not be proud?