It's a massive weekend for Irish boxing. Katie Taylor will fight Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden Saturday night. After weeks of dismal news on the boxing front, it's been wonderful to have Katie Taylor back in our lives this week to remind about the good side of the sport.
However, the fallout to the US government sanctions against senior members of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group continues.
Today, Matt Lawton in the Times (UK) is reporting Matthew Macklin was not allowed to board a flight to the US this week because of his connections to Kinahan.
Lawton says Macklin was not the only boxing figure not allowed on the flight.
Macklin is a long-standing pundit for Sky Sports Boxing and was trying to board a plane to Las Vegas for Sky's coverage of Shakur Stevenson and Óscar Valdez on Saturday night.
Lawton says Macklin was turned back 'on instruction of US authorities because of his past association with Kinahan'.
There has been a lot of scrutiny of Macklin's continued work with Sky Sports, as Macklin and Kinahan were involved in founding MTK Sports and have each described the other as 'best friends'.
Kinahan was once quoted in a Boxing Monthly article saying the following about Macklin:
"I only met him after the Jamie Moore fight in September 2006. He came over a week after the fight. I met him at the airport and from there we became friends. Matthew is probably my best friend."
Ahead of the Tyson Fury fight last weekend, Sky Sports issued a statement to the media, backing Macklin. It said:
"Matt Macklin disposed of his stake in MTK in 2017. Since then, he has had no commercial dealings with Daniel Kinahan. Like everyone at Sky Sports, he will fully comply with the US sanctions."
MTK was originally called MGM, meaning Macklin's Gym Marbella. It was renamed MTK after Macklin's nickname Mack The Knife. MTK Global announced it is ceasing operations tomorrow, the last day of April.
SEE ALSO: MTK Global Announces It Will 'Cease Operations'
