(A/N: Some of the info stated in this article pertaining to certain individuals is alleged or reported from other sources. This article or the author does not accuse said individuals to be part of / engaging with any criminal organization, but merely highlights the information surrounding the topic of crime & corruption in boxing).
While the corruption in boxing has already been highlighted on this site, if not anywhere else, there’s a deeper layer of impiety behind the sport that has gone unspoken for too long.
Boxing is a gladiator sport in a sense, built originally for entertainment purposes while providing a means to live for those involved in the sport, and a chance for the best athletes to show off their training and skills in sanctioned combat. Boxing has certainly had its up-and-downs, but it has managed to survive through its early uncultivated years of backroom brawls and small open-arena events with roughly-made rings, to bouts now being featured in the largest stadiums in the world.
Boxers can earn millions now, and the most popular ones are featured in commercials and ads like any other star athlete. It leaves the impression that boxing has reached a certain level in mainstream media, a sort of badge that qualifies it as a legitimate sport that’s devoid of any lawlessness, which for the most part does hold true. Behind the surface however, there are a small number of connections that – while not threatening the participants or viewers of boxing – does affect criminal elements in society.
To understand, we have to summarize the involvement of an alleged gangster whose name might have popped up a couple times in the news as of late: Daniel Kinahan.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1977 on June 25, Kinahan was suspected of belonging to the Kinahan Cartel, a family rumored to be dabbling so heavily in the criminal underworld that they ended up as one of the biggest cartels in the world. According to the High Court of Ireland, he has been pinpointed as the leader or at least senior member of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group and has allegedly numerous crimes on his list, most prominently drug dealing and attempting, committing or approving murders.
Kinahan set up MTK Global in 2012 with fellow Irishman, and former pro boxer, Matthew Macklin. MTK Global became one of the more esteemed boxing promotions in the sport, partially due to the signing of big names or prospects such as Tyson Fury and Josh Taylor. Roughly 10 years later, MTK Global would announce they would close by the end of April in 2022 when co-founder Kinahan was charged by the US government for a number of crimes, including racketeering, and essentially became a wanted man on the run.
Daniel Kinahan has been accused of using MTK Global to whitewash the money that was allegedly gained through criminal activities, and was reportedly closely attached to Tyson Fury’s unification talks with Anthony Joshua which nearly succeeded if it wasn’t for Deontay Wilder winning an arbitration case against Fury.
As far as we know, Kinahan’s reputed criminal dealings never seeped further into boxing than whitewashing, but in the greater scope of reality, a ton of boxers were signed to a company who’s co-founder is apparently so evil, the U.S. government didn’t hesitate to put out a $5 million reward for information on Kinahan’s whereabouts or crimes.
Figures in boxing like promoter Bob Arum and sports administrator Mauricio Sulaimán have already denied any sort of criminal involvement with Kinahan, but the former did allege that Kinahan at the very least was involved with some ‘bad things’ at some point of his life, and Mauricio himself was spotted a mere week or two with Kinahan before the alleged gangster was sanctioned by the U.S. Daniel Kinahan has clearly mingled with boxing personalities before he became a wanted man, leaving many to guess on how deep his connections actually went.
It is disappointing when boxing suffers from the actions of a couple individuals, but it is important to highlight the actions or decisions of these few to diagnose the problems in boxing, in order to fix them. Boxing as come a long way, but to be able to put it on a pedestal akin to soccer and basketball, important figures in the sport need to take responsibility and become true leaders that can safeguard the present, and the future of sport, while making sure the past is something to be learned from, and not ducked.
