Posted on 04/20/2022
By: Sean Crose
Unfortunately, boxing and organized crime have a long standing relationship. Although nationalities, ethnicities, races, and even eras may change, it’s hard to deny that a gangster is a gangster and that gangsters have tainted the sport of boxing throughout much of it’s sometimes notorious, sometimes glorious, history. Whether it was Primo Canera, Sonny Liston, Jake LaMotta, or others, famous fighters have a long history of reportedly being “mobbed up.” And while these figures may stand falsely accused, it’s hard to argue gangsters like the late Frankie Carbo have been knee deep in the fight game over the decades.
With that in mind – they say that the more things change, the more they stay they stay the same. Fight fans can certainly nod grimly at this assertion for, on the eve of Saturday’s heavyweight title match in London between defending champion Tyson Fury and challenger Dillian Whyte, much is being made of Fury’s connection to Daniel Kinahan, a youngish looking Irishman in his forties reportedly living in Dubai. As the founder of MTK Global sports management, the man has been connected to the fight game for years, and – at least on paper – to Fury, who has been represented by the company.
Yet despite what he has said, Kinahan is seen as far more than a behind the scenes player in the fight game. In fact, boxing is simply said to have been a front for the Kinahan Cartel, an Ireland based drug gang with a history of brutal violence under it’s belt. When they haven’t been running drugs in Europe, the Kinahan’s are said to have been behind more than a few murders. Unless his claims of innocence are true, however, the tide appears to have turned for Kinahan and his reputed, eponymously named crew. Irish, British, and American law enforcement are, to put it frankly, all over Kinahan – and in a very public way.
So where does this leave Fury just days before he faces Whyte in front of a reported 90,000 people at London’s Wembley Stadium? The towering Englishman doesn’t appear to be in any legal trouble. Like many, if not most, high profile fighters accused of being “mobbed up,” there’s no evidence that the man known as “The Gypsy King” has been at all involved with organized criminal behavior himself. Still law enforcement going after your former advisor while the management company that represents you goes down for being a mob front can no doubt take its toll.
Fury has been open about his battles with mental illness and substance abuse. Will the stress of his connection to a reputed crime boss impact his ring performance on Saturday? Fury may be favored to beat the veteran contender Whyte, but if he’s not completely focused, the world may see a new WBC and lineal champion be crowned this weekend. Then again, Fury is known for having a strong, a very strong, personality. One simply doesn’t get up from the kind of shot Fury did after Deontay Wilder put him on the mat during the last round of their first fight unless one is thoroughly determined. And, when he’s determined, Fury is a VERY difficult man to beat.