Welsh boxers Andrew Selby Jay Harris and Liam Williams were sold the dream of world titles and untold riches when they signed with MTK Global, a management and promotional company. What was left untold was the murky dealings of founder Daniel Kinahan, as Fraser Watson explains.
When Tyler Hamilton appeared on American CBS News show 60 minutes back in May 2011, you assumed something explosive was coming.
Sure enough, the former cyclist proceeded to unveil the harrowing, explicit detail of the doping programme which had supplemented the US Postal team’s ascent to the top of sport. Or more specifically, Lance Armstrong’s ascent.
The riposte was predictable. Armstrong, by then already stained by a drip feed of allegations, still had one hand to play. Conveniently, it was a factual hand, too.
“20 plus year career. 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case.”
Fast forward a decade and swap cycling for boxing. Last week’s BBC Panorama documentary produced seemingly damming evidence that Daniel Kinahan, already named by the High Court of Ireland as a senior figure in organised crime, continues to collaborate business with pleasure.
For Kinahan, pleasure being his wheeler-dealing, management and match-making at the very top end of professional boxing, that included the direction of two world-ranked Welsh fighters.
On allegations his association with the Kinahan cartel delves far deeper than by family name alone, he said on Monday: “There is no evidence or proof against me. I have said repeatedly – I have no criminal record anywhere in the world.”
Alleged ‘crime boss’ Daniel Kinahan is still working in boxing
https://t.co/TYiJPTymPJ— Panorama 🌐 (@BBCPanorama) February 1, 2021
Like Armstrong once could, the co-founder of MTK Global could essentially point to a denial based on fact.
A more telling comparison would be that his statement equated to a blind faith, a perception that his influence in boxing is such that the sport will ignore the disturbing underworld which lies beneath it.
For Kinahan’s statement – submitted to that well established barometer of boxing morality that is TalkSport’s White and Jordan show – was anything but his Oprah Winfrey moment.
Unlike what was eventually squeezed out of Armstrong, there was no begrudged confession, not even an admittance to the claim he had sought to intimidate a journalist in the aftermath of Panorama’s work.
Instead, the 43-year-old Irishman, who, for the bulk of the 21st century has been labelled by investigators a suspected international drug-trafficking figure, remains just that – a suspect.
His father Christy has previously served six years in jail, a fate his assumed protégé has thus far avoided.
Still evasive to the ever-closing circle around him, and still largely untouched by authorities.
And seemingly, still as influential as ever in boxing – having been indiscreetly lauded by Tyson Fury last June for helping secure his potential multi-million pound fight with Anthony Joshua.
Kinahan co-founded MTK in 2012 along with former boxer Matthew Macklin – with the original base a gym in Marbella.
🗣️ “I’LL SMASH ANDRADE!”@Liamwilliamsko shares his thoughts on his world title showdown with @BooBooAndrade
READ ➡️ https://t.co/hlHfys8k5z#AndradeWilliams #WilliamsAndrade #LiamWilliams #Boxing pic.twitter.com/Cc126z8b2N
— MTK Global Boxing 🌍 (@MTKGlobal) February 11, 2021
He supposedly disassociated himself in 2017, in the wake of a shooting during which he was considered the main target. The list of links to numerous other crimes ranging from drug trafficking to murder is a lengthy one.
When in May 2020 his reintegration with the company became official, it was widely reported the Irish police believed Kinahan Cartel planned to use MTK as a front for criminal activities – again.
And yet, many of the world’s best remain undeterred. Fury leads an esteemed list of boxers signed up with the company, with Billy Joe Saunders another loyal associate.
Closer to home, Welsh fighters Jay Harris, Andrew Selby and Liam Williams have also been sold the dream.
The opening of The Academy of Sports and Education in London last year, the deal with ESPN, the formulation of the Golden Contract tournament are further examples of the control exerted from the headquarters of the house that Kinahan built.
And it’s such developments that expose boxing’s confused relationship with corruption. One whereby associating to heinous misdeeds, often which extend way beyond the level of tenuous, are allowed to linger in the back room for as long as the front of house appears captivating.
Indeed, boxing remains a sport where outrage doesn’t correlate with morality. It’s where draws involving Fury (Deontay Wilder) or Saul Canelo (Gennady Golovkin) can spark mass calls of judging scandal, and yet their positive doping tests and questionable cover stories can simply serve as mere career footnotes.
It’s where the human rights record of Saudi Arabia can be dismissed for as long as the nation possesses the financial clout to accommodate Anthony Joshua.
It’s where Don King can officially sit in the Hall of a Fame following decades of fraud.
And as long as Kinahan roams free, the sport he clearly still influences with enormous magnitude will again bury its head deep in the sand. And that’s despite him being banned from the US, having been placed on a list of ‘narco terrorists’.
Indeed, Amir Khan came out this week to describe him as “one of the nicest guys”. Fury’s former trainer Ben Davison said he gets fighters what they deserve and respect. Others insisted boxing would not be where it is without him.
Extortionate purses, global audiences, mouth-watering pay per view bouts. For as long as such concepts remain prominent on the outside, boxing can continue to parade itself as the sport of kings.
For as long as figures like Kinahan remain prominent, it’s more akin to the game of crooks.