Boxing at The Daniel Kinahan Crossroads

Boxing finds itself at a crossroads, though it’s been down this path before.

The sport’s moral compass wasn’t created normally and it has often led everyone involved astray.

Now the sport has a divisive powerbroker calling shots at the very highest level.

This week Daniel Kinahan was thanked loudly and clearly by heavyweight ruler Tyson Fury for getting the financials agreed in a two-fight deal with Anthony Joshua for 2021, should they overcome Deontay Wilder and Kubrat Pulev respectively.

Kinahan is two different things to two groups of people.

If you read the Irish media he is the devil incarnate, a mafia kingpin responsible for wreaking havoc in Dublin and further afield. A Google search doesn’t do him any favours.

Ask those in boxing about him and you would think he’s a cross between the Pied Piper and Robin Hood.

He’s a friend to fighters, a sounding board for promoters and he’s brokered top-flight deals we will likely know nothing about.

Since Bob Arum spoke highly about him a couple of weeks ago any number of fighters, old and new, have endorsed his credentials in the sport, including Roy Jones.

Kinahan headed MTK until 2017 when he was bought out but he’s remained close with MTK boss Sandra Vaughan.

And MTK has been smart with the guys they’ve recruited; some of the nicest guys in the sport work for MTK. Instantly those on the other side of the fence say their morals and integrity have been compromised but on the boxing side their partners have aligned themselves with powerbrokers and get paid by a team that’s becoming if not the only player then one of the only players in town.

For many, MTK has been the only real source of new money in the sport in years, certainly outside the USA.

There aren’t many fighters on lucrative sponsorship or promotional deals from anywhere besides them and increasingly all roads either lead to Kinahan or MTK.

And boxers are old fashioned. Many of them might have come from tough backgrounds, dabbled in crime, been associated with it and so forth so they treat people how they want to be treated. And to a man they say Kinahan has treated them wonderfully. He’s made fights they’ve wanted, done deals that have secured their futures and been the advisor they’ve always dreamed of. He’s not got involved in the usual petty squabbles that cost boxing millions each year due to the more powerful people in the sport being too stubborn to work together for a common good.

He’s opened doors.

Common ripostes are, “He’s always treated me wonderfully, treat people how you want to be treated”, while others have simply been impressed by the way he’s got business done. Without him, how far away would Fury-Joshua be? A good bit further away is a fair answer.

Boxing has needed someone calling the shots for years, but is this the right guy?

Even if the past is in the past, and many fear it’s not, is Kinahan the man to take things forward?

A number of fans have already tweeted saying they don’t care how the deals are done, just so long as the best fight the best, while others have pointed to boxing’s chequered past and simply say that things have always been this way, referring back to the impact of Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo decades ago; yet here we are in 2020 with fans comparing the sport to when it was being fixed, ruled and governed by The Mob in the 1950s and ‘60s.

But the fans have been starved of quality for a long time.

There’s no huge influx of cash coming from anywhere else and in Ireland people want to know where the money comes from. No TV network outside of the USA is writing serious cheques for anyone that is not attached to a box office promotion. Men and women in the fight game are often reminded how their careers are short, how many old fighters wind up broke and beaten down. Kinahan is a friend to fighters trying to make sure that doesn’t happen. That’s all they see. Google suggests otherwise.

And in Ireland things are different, too.

The Irish government has contacted their counterparts in the UAE, which is thought to be in the running to host Fury-Joshua, while Labour leader Alan Kelly has asked the Irish government to talk to the British media and sports channels about Kinahan’s involvement in the superfight.

Boxing and crime have become intrinsically linked. Kinahan’s role in the sport is dominating the front and back pages in Ireland but boxing, the UK and the rest of the world doesn’t see the story.