Kinahan made fortune through Fury, insists Arum

LEGENDARY boxing promoter Bob Arum has revealed he paid wanted alleged villain Daniel Kinahan millions for each of Tyson Fury’s last four bouts.

Arum, boss of legendary Top Rank, admitted he had paid more than £1million each for the quartet of fights including Fury’s last two with Deontay Wilder.

Arum went on to reveal that Kinahan remains ‘100 per cent’ the brains behind Fury’s management company MTK Global, who are also Scottish world champion Josh Taylor’s promoters, despite the firm themselves insisting they had severed ties with the so-called mob leader five years ago.

And, chillingly, Arum went on to reveal that during some of those negotiations for Fury’s recent fights, Kinahan had claimed he had ‘done some bad things’.

Arum said Top Rank had paid Kinahan up to £1.5m in consultancy fees for each of Fury’s last two bouts against Wilder as well as fights against Otto Wallin and Tom Schwarz, but said the relationship had broken down during talks for Fury’s fight this Saturday against Dillian Whyte at Wembley.

‘He was becoming greedier and greedier,’ said Arum. ‘And he became more of a burden than a help. For Fury versus Whyte, Frank (Warren) and I drew the line. We would not talk to him and we would not deal with him.

‘We would not be involved and he would not get money from us or anybody else.’

Asked if Fury was upset about this, he replied: ‘Tyson was certainly not upset.’

Kinahan last week had a $5m bounty slapped on his head by the US Government, who claimed that his ‘Kinahan Organised Crime Group’ smuggles drugs to Europe, launders money, trafficks firearms and commits murder, allegations Kinahan has always denied.

Last year he countered: ‘I’m not part of a criminal gang or any conspiracy. I have tried my best to ignore the allegations that are constantly made about me.’

Arum, now 90, admitted he had been wary of Kinahan’s past when they first tried to strike up a business relationship.

He said: ‘Kinahan called me and we had a long conversation. He said: “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 businessman”.’

Arum mocked the notion that Kinahan was no longer involved with MTK, the company he founded in 2012 alongside former boxer Matthew Macklin. Asked whether he was still active in the running of the organisation, Arum said: ‘One hundred per cent. He founded it, it’s his company.’

MTK Global released a statement on Thursday distancing themselves from Kinahan. It read: ‘MTK parted ways with Mr Kinahan in February 2017. He has had no interest in the business since then and will have no future involvement with us.’

But Arum added: ‘He can say what he wants, I know for a fact from some of the stuff he did that it was his company, whatever the books said.’

Arum said he hasn’t spoken to Kinahan in a number of months and the lawyer stated that as ‘a law-abiding citizen’ of the United States he stood by his

government’s determination to track down the 44-year-old Dubliner.

‘Look, believe me, once the US made its position clear it seems to me that there was a big sigh of relief from everybody, whether it’s Frank Warren or myself,’ he said.

Fury had once hailed Irishman Kinahan as a ‘key advisor’ and was pictured with him in February in Dubai which, according to the US Government, is the hub for his company’s criminal activities.

In a video in 2020, Fury applauded Kinahan’s role in negotiating the ‘Fight of the Century’ with Anthony Joshua, even though it eventually fell through and Kinihan had supposedly stepped away from fight promotion in 2017.

The fight was derailed amid an outcry over Kinahan’s alleged criminal activities.

Meanwhile David Haye is backing Dillian Whyte to pull off a shock victory over Fury to claim the WBC heavyweight title next Saturday.

Haye, the former world champion, says Whyte’s counter-punching style could trouble his fellow Briton at Wembley Stadium.

Haye, who sparred with Whyte earlier in his career, also believes the challenger has the greater knockout power.

‘Tyson has everything it takes to be the best heavyweight in the world,’ he said. ‘But, as a betting man, I’m putting my money on Dillian. Because the odds are out of proportion with his reasonable chance of pulling off this shock.’