LONDON (Reuters) – Dubai-based boxing management company MTK Global announced its closure on Wednesday following U.S. government action against Irish co-founder Daniel Kinahan.
The U.S. authorities this month offered a $5 million reward for help arresting the leaders of Ireland’s Kinahan drug trafficking gang.
Daniel Kinahan, one of the three leaders named, has been involved in organising high profile boxing fights in recent years.
MTK Global, which represents hundreds of fighters, said in a statement that as a business it had “faced unprecedented levels of unfair scrutiny and criticism since the sanctioning by the U.S. government of Daniel Joseph Kinahan.”
It said Kinahan’s involvement in MTK had ended in 2017 but “unfounded allegations about his ongoing association with us and our fighters” persisted.
“Since leading promoters have now informed us that they will be severing all ties with MTK and will no longer work with our fighters, we have taken the difficult decision to cease operations at the end of this month,” it added.
MTK Global had earlier announced the departure of CEO Bob Yalen for personal reasons.
“Our priority in the weeks ahead will be to ensure that our world class boxers are supported to find new partnerships as swiftly as possible,” it said.
Kinahan was credited by Britain’s world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who defends his WBC belt at London’s Wembley Stadium on Saturday, with helping broker a potential unification bout two years ago.
Fury told Sky Sports News that there had been no business dealings with Kinahan for “a long time” and there was no involvement in his latest fight.
World Boxing Council (WBC) President Mauricio Sulaiman said he had been introduced to Kinahan on a recent visit to Dubai but there had never been any relationship with the Irishman.
“He has never been involved with the WBC,” he told Reuters at an event launching a Greatest Fights Opus book and charity auction for Ukraine.
“It was just a situation that I went on a trip to Dubai and met Daniel and that’s it.”
A lawyer for Daniel Kinahan told the BBC last year he has no criminal record or convictions and allegations about being a crime boss are false.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
