The boxer’s embarrassing determination to avoid the unpleasant truth about his often tasteless business was revealed Thursday night during a media conference to promote the heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Dillian White at Wembley Stadium on April 23.
Earlier this week, the biggest boxing news of the year came when the US Treasury Department announced that it had imposed harsh sanctions on Daniel Kinahan, one of the most influential men in the sport, who acted as a confidant and adviser to Fury and many other leading fighters in Britain and the United States. The U.S. government has also warned all fighters and promoters who have worked with Kinahan to sever ties with him because of his alleged leadership in a criminal cartel.
However, during a conversation on Zoom with up to a hundred journalists, not a single question was asked of Fury or his promoters Bob Aram and Frank Warren about the damage done to the already battered reputation of boxing. These reporters, invited to offer their inquiries to Fury, chose to focus exclusively on routine questions about the accumulation of the battle and the turbulent mood of the world champion as he prepares to defend his title against White in front of a crowd of 94,000 a week on Saturday. Meanwhile, journalists working outside the economic boxing media who sought to ask Fury how he felt about the sanctions imposed on Kinahan were disappointed.
All the media was silenced until the call, so there was no way to break the omerta of silence that engulfs boxing when it comes to discussing Kinahan’s deeply disturbing influence. Based in Dubai and in exile from his native Ireland, where he and his family face numerous criminal charges, Kinahan is a source of great support for many boxers. They all swear by his loyalty and generosity to them.
Last year, Fury turned to social media to praise the crucial role that Kinahan played in organizing an extremely lucrative battle between him and Anthony Joshua. This battle did not take place after an American judge ruled that Fury was contractually bound to meet Deontay Wilder first. Since then, Kinahan’s strength in boxing has expanded significantly, and two companies closely associated with it, MTK and Probellum, have expanded.
Kinahan, who has no criminal convictions, has always denied any wrongdoing. Last month, he seemed to take another giant step forward in his concerted campaign to clear his reputation. Mauricio Suleiman, head of the World Boxing Council, complains that Kinahan is “a character who has been crossed out and labeled as a person associated with criminal groups, thus creating prejudice against much of the world’s boxing community.” Suleiman defended Kinahan vigorously and stressed that “he will have our full support in his efforts to bring benefits to boxing.”
Yet this week in Dublin, at a very different kind of press conference, the US government offered a $ 5 million reward for information that would lead to financial collapse or the arrest or conviction of Kinahan, his father, brother and four of their associates.
Gregory Gatianis, associate director of the US Foreign Assets Control Service, said the Kinahan cartel would now be a priority for US law enforcement in the same way it pursued the Italian Camorra, the Yakuza mafia in Japan and Russia’s Izmailovskaya.
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On Thursday night, in the muted and captivating world of Zoom, it was as if this story had never happened. Fury is an extremely intelligent world champion who has done significant work to develop a broader understanding of mental health. He is confident and smart enough to handle almost any media request. It would be fascinating to hear Fury’s thoughts on this week’s seismic events, both for Kinahan and boxing.
Instead, there was hot air and silence. A well-known journalist and investigative journalist working outside the red boxing neighborhood had waited an hour to ask a question. Like many others, his opportunity never came, so he wrote only one exact word to the rest of us in the conversation: “Uncomfortable.”
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