It's nearly two weeks to the day that US government issued sanctions against senior figures in the Kinahan Organised Crime Group. The sport of boxing is still reeling.
The UK media was slow to cover Kinahan's links to professional boxing. However, in the wake of the US Treasury sanctions two weeks back, all the major British broadsheets have given ample space to sketching out the shadow that the Dubliner continues to cast over the sport.
After all, Bob Arum revealed that Kinahan had been paid by Top Rank more than one million dollars to advise Tyson Fury on each of his previous four fights before last Saturday.
It was interesting, but perhaps not surprising, to see many of the boxing journalists who'd written about Kinahan these last two weeks given the worst possible seats in the press row to cover Fury v Whyte at Wembley
Donald McRae, perhaps the most esteemed boxing journalist alive, sent this tweet showing his location Saturday evening, and saying he was joined by Sean Ingle of the Guardian, Riath Al-Samarrai of the Mail and Tris Dixon, who's written one of the best pieces about Kinahan and boxing for Boxing Scene.
I always feel privileged to cover boxing from ringside. Tonight I'm the back row of a box in a different dimension to the ring. It's strange we ended up here but I am in good company with @seaningle @riathalsam @OllieHolt22 @TrisDixon @MattCBoxingNews Binoculars will be handy... pic.twitter.com/Poa9pyD2In
— Donald McRae (@donaldgmcrae) April 23, 2022
Meanwhile, some journalists had a far better view of the fight.
#FuryWhyte undercard underway on ESPN+! pic.twitter.com/p7EpYjwKFo
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) April 23, 2022
Or perhaps it was just a coincidence. We asked Frank Warren Promotions for a comment on their seating strategy for journalists on the night and are awaiting reply.
For the first time that we recall, Kinahan's name was being included in Fury fight recaps in the British media.
Here's some of Ollie Holt's recap of the fight in the Mail:
Fury won comprehensively, brilliantly, beautifully in the ring. But outside the ring, his links with the alleged crime boss Daniel Kinahan, which had overshadowed the build-up to the contest with Whyte, continued to cast a shadow over the fight game.
Al- Samarri asked similar questions in his piece for the same publication:
But then there's Fury, with his two million followers on Twitter and five million on Instagram. How are we to view a man who once posted 'Dan for PM'? Or that time he celebrated Kinahan's role in brokering two aborted fights with Anthony Joshua? Or the picture they posed for together in February of this year?
Kinahan's links to Fury are not exactly new but it's never too late for media outlets to come around to the story. The price of such coverage may be diminished eyelines at boxing's biggest parties.
