By A leading boxing “fixer” says international crime boss Daniel Kinahan secretly struck a multi-million dollar deal with global fight promoter Top Rank to be its exclusive consultant outside of the U.S.
Former Top Rank agent William (Billy) Keane claims in a lawsuit filed in California that the “under the table” deal was struck after Kinahan had helped him to get world champion Tyson Fury to agree to a rematch fight with Deontay Wilder.
Keane, who is suing the Nevada-based promoter for in excess of $25 million, plus interest, in allegedly unpaid fees, claims that he spent $27,000 courting Kinahan and Fury in Dubai for Top Rank in January 2019 ahead of the fighter’s change of promoters the following month.
Authorities in the United States, Ireland and other countries accuse Kinahan of running a deadly global cartel with his father and younger brother and have offered rewards of up to $15 million for information leading to their arrest and conviction.
Keane says Top Rank president Todd duBoef was desperate to woo Fury away from Warren because Top Rank needed a new star fighter to satisfy the sports broadcaster ESPN, with which it had signed a contract extension to a “$90 million/year” rights deal.
But deBoef admonished Keane that ESPN could not find out that Kinahan was involved because the Irish press had reported that Kinahan was the leader of a drug cartel, and if duBoef were linked to him, ESPN might be forced to terminate their, Keane’s court filing says.
“It had been more than six months since Top Rank signed the 2018 ESPN Extension, Top Rank was earning more money under the new deal terms but had not yet signed any new, meaningful talent, ESPN was not happy ..,” the filing adds.
In a statement to ICIJ, duBoef’s attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, rejected Keane’s court claims, saying: “Nothing was secret. [Keane’s] allegations are false and his lawsuit is frivolous.”
Keane grew up in Chicago, where he won several local amateur boxing titles. After he moved to L.A., he befriended Hall of Fame trainer Freddy Roach and began to prepare Roach’s fighters for world title bouts before becoming a boxing manager.
In his complaint claiming breach of contract and promissory fraud, Los Angeles-based Keane describes himself as “tantamount to a Swiss Army knife – an extremely well-connected fixer with all the right tools” to secure professional boxing bouts worth millions of dollars.
Keane says duBoef also turned to Kinahan because he was afraid that the multi-billion dollar, star-driven UFC mixed martial arts juggernaut was going to expand into boxing, potentially threatening Top Rank’s commercial future.
Keane claims that Kinahan had set two conditions of his own for duBoef (stepson of legendary Top Rank co-founder and CEO Bob Arum) before agreeing to arrange for Fury to sign with Top Rank and fight Wilder again.
“(a) Top Rank would have to agree to pay him a percentage of Fury’s fight purses, and (b) Top Rank would have to give MTK (the management company started by Kinahan) an output deal to assure that Kinahan’s other fighters received television exposure.”
Keane says he was first brought in because while Arum and duBoef believed Fury had the potential to become a superstar – “the next Ali” – neither could approach Fury directly because Arum did not want to burn his relationship with Fury’s then manager, Frank Warren.
But just as negotiations appeared to be successfully concluding, Keane alleges the deal hit a snag when Fury expressed concern over Top Rank’s ability to honor its financial commitment and insisted that ESPN had to guarantee his contract.
“Keane knew he had only one option. He had to turn to Kinahan for help. He did and Kinahan offered to personally guarantee Fury’s contract. Although Kinahan’s personal guarantee was sufficient for Fury, Keane was concerned that duBoef might balk at the idea of allowing Kinahan to serve as guarantor for duBoef’s contract with Fury,” Keane’s filing claims, adding, “If duBoef had any trepidations, he kept them to himself.”
Fury signed with Top Rank in late-February 2019.
A month later, Keane’s court filing says Arum publicly credited Keane with putting the Fury deal together, saying “when he offers a fighter something, it’s with the approval of not only Top Rank, but ESPN”.
Arum has been promoting top-flight boxing championships for more than 50 years, including fights by Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Marvin Hagler, Manny Pacquiao, Sugar Ray Leonard and many more greats.
After Fury signed with Top Rank, Keane says he flew to Dubai with duBoef and other executives to meet with Kinahan. Keane says duBoef told him to enlist Kinahan’s help to take all of Frank Warren’s fighters and put Warren out of business.
Keane says duBoef had decided to pay Kinahan millions of dollars for his exclusivity to Top Rank “under the table” without Arum’s knowledge or consent, for fear that Arum would overrule him.
“In March 2019, duBoef instructed Keane to secure an agreement to make Kinahan Top Rank’s exclusive consultant outside of the United States to help orchestrate Top Rank’s strategic move into foreign territories,” Keane’s complaint says.
“DuBoef expressed that having Kinahan’s muscle exclusively backing duBoef would be a massive advantage when it came to potential competitors and duBoef’s plans for European expansion.”
But the Kinahan arrangement was to be shielded from duBoef’s stepfather Arum, for fear that Arum would find out and kill the deal and, soon after, Keane says duBoef “decided to pay Kinahan millions of dollars for his exclusivity to Top Rank ‘under the table’ without Arum’s knowledge or consent’.”
Despite Keane’s claim that duBoef wanted Arum shut out from the Kinahan deal, as he was “too old” and “would never understand”, Keane says Arum told him after Arum had met with Kinahan in Kazakhstan that they had no confidence in duBoef’s judgment.
Keane says that when Arum returned to the United States, he confided to him Kinahan’s concerns about du Boef’s judgment, then instructed Keane to manage the Kinahan relationship and “not let duBoef fuck it up”.
Then, in 2021, as Top Rank was working on a big UK broadcasting deal with Sky Sports, Keane says duBoef grew concerned once more that his alliance with Kinahan could upend things, so he instructed Keane to fully take over the relationship.
Kinahan co-founded MTK Global – short for Mack The Knife – in 2012 and set up a boxing base in the Emirates which operated in 11 countries and represented several top boxers and mixed martial arts fighters.
The Keane complaint alleges that when the U.S. sanctioned Daniel Kinahan and the other top members of the Kinahan organised crime syndicate in 2022, duBoef called Keane “in a panic.”
“This time, duBoef asked Keane to lie to senior ESPN executives and say that duBoef had nothing to do with Kinahan and had never even met him,” the 34-page complaint filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California states.
Leaked records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed in 2022 previously unknown ties between MTK Global and Ducashew Consultancy, a key Kinahan company also based in Dubai that was sanctioned by the US.
MTK was not sanctioned or linked to criminality, but the sanctions on Kinahan led to its closure. Arum told the media at the time that he regretted having worked with Kinahan.
Extradition proceedings are reportedly underway in the United Arab Emirates to bring one of Kinahan’s key lieutenants, Sean McGovern, back to Ireland to face murder charges. Daniel Kinahan, his father, Christopehr, and younger brother, Christopher Jr, are believed to be living freely in Dubai.
Last September, a California judge ordered Daniel Kinahan and various MTK entities to pay boxing manager Moses Hereida approximately $9.7 million after Hereida claimed that Kinahan illegally poached his fighter Joseph “JoJo” Diaz with drug money. The ruling came after a four year legal battle.
Mr Kinahan did not reply to a request for comment by ICIJ.
Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions did not reply to a separate request for comment.
