Tyson Fury surprised many people when he publicly thanked Daniel Kinahan for his role in agreeing a fight with Anthony Joshua.
The heavyweight contest failed to materialise, but it would have been one of the biggest fights of all time.
Fury, who has no involvement in crime, is now preparing to defend his WBC world title against Dillian Whyte at Wembley next weekend.
News emerged earlier this week that a five million dollar reward for information on the Kinahan crime gang that leads to the arrest and conviction of its leaders is being offered by the US authorities.
Fury was not asked about his relationship with Kinahan when he spoke to members of the media on a Zoom call on Thursday evening, but he has said plenty about the Dubliner in the past and was pictured with him as recently as February.
Back in 2020, Fury posted a video online in which he credited Kinahan, who co-founded MTK Global, for getting the deal done.
Speaking in the clip, he said: "I'm just after getting off the phone there 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."
Kinahan's involvement with Fury angered many at the time, but promoter Eddie Hearn claimed he was surprised with the backlash after then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called on boxing fans to boycott the fight.
Varadkar said: "Certainly the authorities in the UAE know the situation and they know our concerns and problems with it.
"It is not a decision for me but I think it would be entirely appropriate for sporting organisations and media organisations to have nothing to do with this.
"I wouldn't like to see them giving it any attention at all given the circumstances."
Hearn said afterwards: "Yeah I think in boxing, people realise he represents a number of fighters.
"And for Tyson Fury, he is his adviser. So it's nothing new really to the people in boxing.
"I think that people think that he's just popped up from nowhere. He's been advising fighters for many, many years.
"He's been advising Tyson Fury for many, many years.
"I was a little surprised [with the backlash], but I don't think it was a surprise to anyone in boxing. He's been an advisor for a number of high profile fighters for a number of years.
"It's very difficult if you work in the sport of boxing not to have dealt with him at some time.
"In this instance, it's really quite straightforward in respect of doing a deal to make a fight."
Hearn spoke to Kinahan as part of negotiations for the Fury v Joshua fight that never happened.
He added: "When you get told that the person leading the discussions is x then you deal with that person and you get it done.
"I think probably in this situation is they probably looked at my relationship with Bob [Arum] and my relationship with Frank [Warren] and Tyson Fury and all those guys said maybe we wouldn't get it done and maybe we wouldn't have got it done by me working with Frank Warren to try and make that fight.
"It's really a case of we will negotiate with who we're told to negotiate with and like I said it's not a surprise to anyone in boxing because everyone knows he's been working in boxing a long time with a number of fighters."
Responding to why Kinahan was needed to negotiate the fight, Hearn explained: "I don't know if it's the influence or if it's a calm head or a neutral. It's always going to be very difficult with myself and Frank Warren to make a fight. We've never spoke.
"I mean you only have to look at a Frank Warren interview that if my name comes up I mean it's about 190 beats a minute.
"It's something that I do to him that just sends him over the edge and I always try to keep a balanced mind."
He added: "I think if you look at the previous moves of Tyson Fury, particularly signing with ESPN and Bob Arum. I think that sometimes a neutral head in any negotiations is beneficial to a deal."
Promoter Bob Arum, who is also a lawyer, announced shortly after the video was posted that Kinahan would no longer represent Fury in fight negotiations adding that both he and the boxer "love and admire and respect" Kinahan.
Arum told The Telegraph: “I’ve had a lot of conversations with Tyson Fury and what we both decided is that myself, Top Rank and Fury will do all negotiations for fights in the future.
“Whether it’s for Joshua or Wilder or anybody else. We’ve informed Eddie Hearn about that. He knows where to go for the negotiations. Tyson and I have had long negotiations about it. That’s the way it’s going to be.
“This will eliminate a lot of confusion. We’ve talked with Dan, who Tyson and I both love and admire and respect, and he understands that it’s best the negotiations on Tyson’s side be handled that way.
"Both Tyson and I have each discussed this with Dan and he is amenable and satisfied and wished us luck. He only wants the best for Tyson Fury."
Arum, Hearn, MTK Global and Probellum - a boxing promotion that has been heavily linked with Kinahan since it was launched last September - have all moved to distance themselves from Kinahan in recent days.
Arum told Newstalk Breakfast: "When my government makes a statement like they made, as a law abiding citizen of the United States, I have no other alternative but to abide by their determination."
Meanwhile, Hearn said in an interview: "I think there's not much to say on it other than we're a huge global business that follows all regulations, guidelines and sanctions put in place and we will continue to do so.
"We'll take relevant advice."
He added: "Everything's set out in black and white in terms of what's allowed and what's not allowed.
"We will follow all guidelines put in place by whatever country, by whatever federal government, federation...whatever that may be."
MTK and Probellum both released statements on Kinahan in recent days.
MTK said: "MTK Global will comply fully with the sanctions made by the US government against Daniel Kinahan.
"MTK parted ways with Mr Kinahan in February 2017. He has had no interest in the business since then, and will have no future involvement with us.
"MTK operates ethically, transparently and lawfully. We will cooperate fully with all authorities and assist with any ongoing investigations."
And CEO of MTK Global, Bob Yalen, added: "MTK Global will take every measure to ensure the company, and those who deal with it are fully compliant with the US sanctions announced this week and take this matter extremely seriously."
Probellum's statement read: "Probellum takes the sanctions made by the US Treasury extremely seriously and the business and its employees will be fully compliant with them.
"We have retained counsel in the US to ensure that we fully comply with all rules, regulations and requirements related to this matter, including not working with any individual or company that has been placed under US sanctions.
"This includes Daniel Kinahan and we can confirm that we will not have any business relationship or communication with him whatsoever."
It added: "Any suggestions that Daniel Kinahan is a shareholder or owner of Probellum are false and defamatory."
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