Mob boss Daniel Kinahan is still playing a leading role in boxing despite being at the centre of a worldwide manhunt, a new podcast warns.
World-renowned boxing journalist Donald McRae tells the podcast Untouchable: “I have been told that he is still involved in boxing and it’s business as usual.” The pod, presented by sports reporter Kieran Cunningham, focuses on the life story of Katie Taylor ahead of her hometown face-off in Dublin’s 3Arena against Chantelle Cameron on Saturday night.
And it also examines the devastating effect mobster Daniel Kinahan has had on Irish boxing. The pod says the mobster is still active in the game, despite the worldwide crackdown against him.
Read more: Woman associated with slain gangster Gary Carey arrested on suspicion of leaking location
It comes a year after billionaire Kinahan had a $5million bounty placed on his head along with his father Christy, 65, and 43-year-old brother Christopher Jnr. Drugs gangster Kinahan, 45, had spent several years mounting a carefully-planned PR campaign to sportswash his reputation by reinventing himself as boxing’s Mr Fixit.
However, that plan came crashing down in April last year when US authorities hit him and his father and brother with a huge sanctions package. The men’s bank accounts were frozen by authorities in America as well as in their Dubai bolthole and they were all placed on no-fly lists.
US law enforcement agencies also offered a huge reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of the trio, who are still targets of the international operation today. But Daniel’s plan to reinvent himself as a public player in the worldwide boxing game is collapsing around him in the wake of the hefty sanctions.
Several key players in the sport who had praised him quickly dumped the mobster after he became a public enemy. It had been thought that Kinahan – whose gang has murdered at least 20 people around Europe – had licked his wounds and abandoned involvement in boxing.
But both Mr Cunningham and Mr McRea claim he is back in the business. Mr McRea says his sources have told him Kinahan – believed to be hiding out in the Middle East – has become involved again in the sport in recent months.
He adds: “The name of Daniel Kinahan keeps coming up more and more over the last few months. I have been told that he is still involved in boxing and it’s business as usual. I don’t know whether that is the case or not, but the fact that it is being voiced makes me feel a bit desolate.
“A year ago, before the Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano fight, we had this feeling that maybe Kinahan’s malign influence in boxing was finally over. But I don’t know whether that is the case or not. It has made me pause and think that the situation is again darker and murkier than we would like.”
Pod presenter Kieran Cunningham says he has heard the same and that Kinahan is now secretly involved in securing deals for fights worth millions of euro. He adds: “The information I have from talking to people, particularly in the United Kingdom in the last couple of months, is that there are some people still dealing with him and that he still has an involvement in boxing.
“I did make the assumption when the US sanctions hit that he would step away, that this was too tricky. But it seems that even though his name can’t be out there, there are promotion and management companies his fingerprints are all over.
“There are a couple of things on the horizon on boxing and the information I have is that he is involved – for obvious reasons I can’t name them. But these would be major events and that makes me think he still holds significant power. He is still very well connected.” Mr Cunningham also says he believes Kinahan has gone back to working behind the scenes, as he did before he launched his hair-brained publicity plan around 2018.
He says: “He has kind of reverted to his position of a few years ago. He has a significant involvement but it is not as public an involvement as he had a couple of years ago when people were name checking him all the time.”
Mr Cunningham also said he believed “without doubt” that people involved in boxing were afraid of Kinahan, one of Europe’s richest gangsters. Several key players in boxing did support him before the US crackdown – including Tyson Fury. The current WBC heavyweight champ went on Instagram in June 2020 to thank Kinahan for helping to secure a later abandoned face-off with rival Anthony Joshua.
He said: “I’m just after getting off the phone with Daniel Kinahan. He’s just informed me that the biggest fight in British boxing history has just been agreed.
“Big shout out Dan, he got this done. Literally over the line. Two-fight deal.”
However, that plan quickly collapsed after an outcry against the planned bouts and the fights were scrapped. The first episode of Untouchable is available on Spotify from Tuesday, May 16.
Listen to the Irish Mirror's brand-new podcast Untouchable: How Katie Taylor Changed The World here.
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