The US government sanctioned suspected mob boss Daniel Kinahan last week.
Heavyweight boxing superstar Tyson Fury has broken his silence on Daniel Kinahan, after his former advisor was sanctioned by the US government for his suspected role in operating a narcotics trafficking organization that is worth upwards of a billion dollars and is responsible for gangland murders across Ireland and Spain.
Fury, who visited a gym in Dubai with Kinahan in February, had a tense and at times bizarre exchange with Sky Sports recently during his media appearances ahead of this weekend’s fight against Dillian Whyte. In that interview Fury was pressed on his connection to Kinahan, a man he thanked for negotiating his deals to fight Anthony Joshua in 2020 and a man who Fury’s US promoter Bob Arum claims made millions of dollars from Fury’s fights over recent years.
“I’ve just had a million questions about this rubbish before, but like I’ve said to them, it’s none of my business, and I don’t get involved in others’ business, so it doesn’t really concern me,” said Fury as he attempted to distance himself from Kinahan.
Fury’s denials leads to a remarkable exchange where the fighter refused to acknowledge the seriousness of the issue and tried to draw parallels between the situation and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
That exchange is presented below:
Q: Do you still speak to him? Is he still somebody that is close to you?
TF: He’s not my father, let’s just say that.
Q: A lot has been made of the fact you were pictured with him in February, does that suggest you are still close to him?
TF: To be honest I’ve never been close to anybody apart from my wife and kids, so there we are.
Q: It’s obviously a serious matter…
TF: But again it’s none of my concern or interest.
Q: He was somebody you had business dealings with, do your regret being close to him?
TF: As I say, none of my interest, none of my concern at all. I don’t regret anything, life is too short for regrets. None of my business or concern. Someone asked me about Ukraine recently, none of my concern or business. Nothing to with me. I keep my own business to myself.
Q: The difference between that and Ukraine is obviously Daniel Kinahan is someone you’ve had personal business relationships with
TF: Yeah but I’ve also had a personal business relationship with Wladimir Klitschko haven’t I? Don’t forget we made each other millions of dollars. So it’s the same, isn’t it?
Q: It’s slightly different because you don’t have personal involvement in the war in Ukraine, this is something you have had a personal involvement in…
TF: OK, and what do you want me to do about that?
Q: I’m just asking you…
TF: And I’ve told you, three times, that it’s nothing to do with me, and I don’t care
Q: But it was something to do with you in the past.
TF: What a man does in his own business is none of my concern, I am a boxing man, I don’t get involved in anyone’s business at all. I don’t care what you’ve done, I’m only concerned in what I do, and I don’t do anything apart from box. End of.
Q: Going forward, having seen what US authorities have said will you be severing ties with him?
TF: What the US have said they’ve said, and that’s it, we have to listen to the government, and that’s what we do. End of. Because I don’t want to get into trouble with the US government, and I never have been, and that’s it.
Q: So you won’t be dealing with him business-wise going forward then?
TF: I haven’t done any dealing business with him for a long time. I think there was a statement released in 2020, so that was the end of the business. The fight with Joshua didn’t happen and that was it.
Q: Bob Arum said he’d made more than a million dollars…
TF: I seen that.
Q: So he was involved in those fights?
TF: What Bob Arum does with his own money is his own business. If he goes to spend it on gummy bears or cans of pop, I don’t care what he does with it. He’s got plenty to give out, so what Bob does with his own money isn’t my concern. When you get paid your wages, what you spend it on is not my concern, because it’s not my money.
Fury has traveled to Dubai and posed for pictures with Kinahan on multiple occasions. Kinahan has resided in Dubai ever since 2016, after he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at Dublin’s Regency Hotel.
That shooting occurred at an MGM boxing weigh-in show. MGM is a company co-founded by Kinahan. After the shooting it rebranded to become MTK Global. That company currently manages dozens of boxers and MMA fighters, including Fury, Billy Joe Saunders, Darren TIll and Aleksandar Rakic.
The Regency Hotel shooting was allegedly orchestrated by the Hutch Gang. The Kinahan Organized Crime Group has been at war with the Hutch Gang since 2015, when suspected Kinahan associates executed Gary Hutch; the nephew of alleged Hutch gang boss Gerry Hutch.
In a press release the US Treasury Department alleged that Kinahan was the day-to-day leader of the KOCG and that he had sent money to men currently serving prison sentences for murders committed for the organization.
The US Drug Enforcement Agency has offered a $5 million reward for information that leads to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of Kinahan and the disruption of the KOCG’s alleged activities.