Tyson Fury: Heavyweight says he has 'zero' connection with Daniel Kinahan

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World heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has insisted he has "absolutely zero" involvement with Daniel Kinahan, either in a business or advisory role.

Last week Kinahan was among seven people hit with worldwide financial sanctions by the United States.

Fury, 33, had previously been advised by Irishman Kinahan.

The Briton, who defends his WBC title against Dillian Whyte on Saturday, also confirmed he cut ties with promotional company MTK Global in 2020.

Fury spoke for the first time at a public workout on Tuesday since the world of sport was warned over its involvement with the Kinahan organised crime group.

"It's none of my business and I keep my own business to myself and that's it," he said.

Asked if he had any business or advisory relationship with Kinahan, he replied: "Nope, zero, absolutely zero."

Fury faces fellow British heavyweight Whyte at Wembley stadium and echoed his promoter Frank Warren's comments that Kinahan had no involvement in his upcoming fight.

That assertion was contested this week, however, after The Irish Mirror said Bob Arum's Top Rank - Fury's American promoters - had paid fees of $1.5m-$2m (£1.1-£1.5m) to Kinahan for Fury's past four fights.

Asked if he had ever personally paid consulting fees to Kinahan, Fury replied: "No. Nothing."

"That's Bob Arum's own personal business; what he does with his own money," Fury said.

"I can't stop him from spending on gummy bears if he wants to. What someone does with his own money is not in my control."

Warren, who was sat across the table from Fury as he fielded questions, insisted his fighter had no knowledge any payments were being made to Kinahan by Top Rank.

He said: "I want to make it very clear. One, Daniel Kinahan has nothing to do with this show.

"Number two, Tyson was unaware of any payments made by Top Rank to Daniel Kinahan and made his position very clear a year ago as to what his position was to Daniel Kinahan. And that's it."

'A picture doesn't mean I'm a criminal'

The public work-out at BoxPark in Wembley had an air of tension about it. The elephant in the room was not the 6ft plus heavyweight entertaining the crowd in the ring, rather the question of Fury's connection with Kinahan and his silence on the subject.

Fury and his team insist he cut ties with Kinahan in 2020.

Kinahan was a co-founder of the MTK Global agency, which represents a number of boxing's leading fighters. Fury confirmed he ended a relationship with MTK two years ago.

Kinahan says he cut ties with the company in 2017 and since sanctions were announced, the promotional company has released a fresh statement saying it has no connection to Kinahan.

While the work-out was under way, MTK announced Bob Yalen had "stepped down as CEO of MTK Global for personal reasons".

"I've never been sponsored by MTK ever," Fury said.

"That [being managed by MTK] was from 2017-20, three years. That's it, done. End of. Are there any other probing questions for you to try and trip me up? Because you can't. Because I have nothing to hide."

Fury, however, was pictured with Kinahan in Dubai in February.

"A picture doesn't mean I'm a criminal does it," he said.

"I can't control who is in the building. There could be a criminal in this building but doesn't mean I'm involved in his criminal activity does it?"

There are no allegations of wrongdoing against Fury or any other boxers who have worked with Kinahan.

After a BBC investigation revealed Kinahan's continued presence in the sport last year, he said that allegations of criminality were part of a "campaign" against him.

US authorities have offered a $5m (£3.84m) reward for information on the three most senior members of the Kinahan organised crime group.

'We are not the police'

Also at the work-out was WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman showing off the 'Union Belt', which will be presented to the winner on Saturday night.

Sulaiman was forced to deny that he or the WBC had any relationship with Kinahan this week after he praised Kinahan on social media following a meeting in Dubai.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Sulaiman insisted he was ignorant of who Kinahan was when the meeting took place.

"Neither the WBC or myself have any dealings with Daniel Kinahan. We respect in all countries. We have nothing to hide," he said.

"I was in Dubai and there's many people and I met with a lot of people. It was just a meeting I accepted. Fighters had expressed positive thoughts about him so we met."

Sulaiman said the WBC took the sanctions very seriously, but said the sanctioning body had "not thought" about whether they would continue to do business with fighters who had links to Kinahan.

Sulaiman added he did not believe boxing had an oversight problem, insisting the sport was "clean".

However, with boxing now facing serious questions, Warren admitted he was concerned about the sport's image.

"I am concerned but I'm also concerned about some of the misinformation going around," he said.

"By the way, I've never broken the law and nor has Tyson. I don't know what else you can say. Is it a bad image on boxing? We've sold 94,000 tickets in two days.

"Are we going to do big figures on PPV? Yes we are. We're very conscious of what we need to do as participants and guardians of the sport, but we're not policemen. We're not the police."

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