A former champion boxer has revealed how he left Daniel Kinahan with 'blood pissing from his nose' after the cartel chief jumped into the ring to spar with him when his scheduled sparring partner failed to turn up.
In his autobiography, 'Irish Blood And Grit', Peter McDonagh from Carraroe in Galway, recalls how in the build up to a fight against John Hutchinson for the Irish light middleweight title he travelled to the MGM gym in Marbella, Spain, for warm weather training.
He revealed: 'I remember one particular day, it was a Monday, my sparring partner was due to arrive from another part of Spain but for some reason he was unable to make it.
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'I went ballistic when I found out, Daniel must have heard me ranting and raving and came out of the office, he said, ''calm down I will go and get my gear on and spar with you', to which I replied, 'are you having a laugh I will punch your head in.'
Despite the fact Kinahan had never had an official fight McDonagh admits he was rocked by the gangsters first punch.
He wrote: 'Daniel threw a lazy jab and a big right hand over the top that caught me right on the chin, I'll be honest that punch shook me to my boots, I didn't know if I was in London or Spain,
'We ended up going six rounds and by the end his eyes were marked up and his nose was pissing blood.'
McDonagh then thanked Kinahan for helping him out but was taken aback when the Dubliner said he would do it again the next day.
He writes, 'Daniel ended up being my main and only sparring partner for that Irish title fight and he pushed me really hard in every session'.
McDonagh was also in the room at the Regency hotel when gunmen killed Kinahan gang member David Byrne, who he had been speaking too minutes earlier.
In the book he said: 'As Gary Sweeney from Connemara stepped on the scales out of the corner of my eye I could see an old man with a flat cap and a man dressed as a woman who had their arms linked together.
'The old man put his arm behind his back and looked like he was struggling to get something out then all of a sudden he produced a handgun and spun around.
'It was just like the movies but it was real is the only way I can describe it, for a split second I thought I was a dead man, then there was a bang as he fired into the ceiling, I thought, 'I'm out of here', after what seemed like ages I found a cupboard to hide in, it was a tiny cleaning store cupboard and somebody else had the same idea as they jumped in and landed on my lap.
'When I came out of the cupboard I looked across the reception area and saw someone laying totally still on the floor and blood was pouring from his head.
'I thought I hope that's not David as I was talking to him moments before when I saw the old man pull the handgun out.
'In the room where the police were questioning us there was a window looking right out into the reception area and we could still clearly see the body of David Byrne laying there, it hadn't even been covered with a sheet yet.
'All I could think about was poor David laying there leaving his family behind, not an hour before we were talking and laughing about my fight a few months before'
The boxer then said his sister, Tish, who had died from cancer, was watching over him in the hotel and the following day he went to her grave to say thanks.
'When I got to Tish's grave, in Carraroe, I knelt down and said to her, 'I know you were there yesterday looking over and protecting me.'
