Fury distances himself from alleged mob boss with $5mn bounty on head
WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury says that the alleged crimes perpetrated by his former advisor Daniel Kinahan are “none of my business” as the scandal of the $5 million bounty placed upon the boxing power broker and accused crime lord dominate the narrative ahead of Fury's title defense against Dillian Whyte this weekend.
Irishman Kinahan was named last week in a joint announcement by Irish and US authorities as the leader of a vast criminal empire allegedly responsible for industrial scale drug-smuggling, arms trafficking and murder, with a sizeable financial sum offered for information which would lead to his arrest and conviction, along with his father Christy Sr. and brother Christopher Jr.
The global amplification of allegations which had existed in his native Ireland for several years appeared to take both he and the sport of boxing by surprise. Several of boxing's most prominent power-players quickly scrambled for cover.
Top Rank's Bob Arum, previously seen as someone who had bolstered Kinahan's reputation in the United States, quickly cast Kinahan aside as soon as his usefulness had expired. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said that his once glowing praise of Kinahan was but an “innocent mistake”.
But Fury, the man to whom Kinahan's rise in boxing is inextricably linked, stopped short of issuing any type of stern disassociation to his former chief adviser, the man linked to 18 murders in his home country.
“It’s none of my business, and I don’t get involved in other people’s business,” Fury said to The Ring when probed on the biggest scandal to engulf boxing in recent years.
Daniel Kinahan, though, appeared to be in the Tyson Fury business. It has been reported in recent days that Kinahan received as much as $2 million for helping to negotiate each of Fury's last four fights - two against Deontay Wilder, as well as his wins against Otto Wallin and Tom Schwarz.
Fury has maintained that any professional relationship with Kinahan is long severed, despite the pair being photographed together in Dubai - where Kinahan fled to in 2016 after an attempt on his life by a rival gang - just weeks ago.
MTK Global, the boxing group co-founded by Kinahan, has long rejected accusations that Kinahan remain engaged with them, though Arum, apparently now rejecting any notion of following a pre-prepared narrative, said this week that Kinahan remains “100%" at the helm of the controversial collective.
Arum further explained that Kinahan admitted to him in the past that he had “done some bad things.”
“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 anymore,'” Arum said.
“'I’m just trying to clean up my life and be a legitimate businessman.'”
Arum, perhaps conscious of the potential impact on the financial bottom line of this weekend's Fury vs. Whyte bout, was also quick to point out that Kinahan has no stake in this weekend's battle between the two Englishmen in Wembley Stadium.
“He was becoming greedier and greedier,” he said. “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.”
