Daniel Kinahan used fear and bullying tactics to reach the top of boxing long before he was arrested in relation to allegations he ran a drugs and weapons cartel that generated $1 billion, multiple sources told Boxing Social editor Alan Dawson.
“I’m not scared of a lot of people,” one source with knowledge of Kinahan’s dealings told me “but I’m scared of those people.”
Even six years ago, when I had already filed the first of an ongoing investigation into Kinahan and his rising influence in combat sport, he had a reputation amongst lawmakers and detectives as an instrumental figurehead of an international criminal organization.
But he was also a power-broker in boxing as an advisor and agent.
According to sources I spoke to, he got to that position using intimidation, fear, and strong-arm tactics. A representative for Kinahan didn’t respond to my request for comment at the time.
In one of my investigations into Kinahan, first published on Business Insider in 2020, I revealed how two separate boxing industry sources detailed phone calls in which Kinahan bullied the person on the other end of the line and convinced that person to do what Kinahan wanted.
“Some are afraid to even speak Kinahan’s name in public,” one source said.
Kinahan was allegedly a leader in what police in Ireland called the Kinahan Organized Crime Group. The KOCG, authorities allege, is linked to 18 deaths.
Associates who worked with Kinahan in boxing, I was told, would name-drop the reputed narcoterrorist if conversation and negotiations weren’t going their way.
A second source said, at this point, they were told:
“Do I need to call my friend in Dubai to straighten this out?”
— A Kinahan associate to a boxing insider
This investigation, filed in July 2020, was vindicated two years later when Top Rank boss Bob Arum went on record to say similar.
This followed a crackdown from the US Treasury who slapped sanctions on Kinahan, his brother Christopher Jr., and their father Christopher Sr. “I can’t deal with him in the future because of the position of my government,” Arum said in 2022.
Arum had previously told Newstalk in 2020 that Kinahan was “an honorable man.”
It was around this time when Arum was paying Kinahan $4 million to Kinahan for four Tyson Fury bouts Top Rank helped organize, according to Yahoo Sports.
Arum told Yahoo Sports his relationship with Kinahan soured when he started using what he described as bully tactics.
Dubai police arrested Kinahan in secret on April 15. It was made public on April 17.
