A former MTK boxer has revealed how he left Daniel Kinahan with “blood p***ing from his nose” after the cartel chief got into the ring to spar with him.
In his just published autobiography, Irish Blood And Grit, Galway man Peter McDonagh recalls how in the build up to a fight against John Hutchinson for the Irish light middleweight title he travelled to the then MGM gym in Marbella, Spain, for warm weather training.
He said: “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.
“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’.”
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Despite the fact Kinahan had never had an official fight McDonagh admits he was rocked by the gangster’s first punch.
He added: “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 p***ing 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 only sparring partner for that Irish title fight and he pushed me really hard in every session.”
The hard work clearly paid off as McDonagh won the title on points.
He was also in the room at the Regency Hotel when gunmen killed Kinahan gang member David Byrne, who he had been speaking to minutes earlier.
In the book he says: “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.”
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