BOXING promoter Bob Arum has insisted he fell for Daniel Kinahan’s lies about stepping away from crime.
But he accepts full responsibility for bringing the gang boss to the top of the fight game.
The veteran US fight supremo has blasted a lawsuit claiming his company’s business interactions with drug baron Kinahan were kept secret from him, insisting: “Nobody did anything behind my back.”
On Dan’s apparent move away from crime, Bob told The Irish Sun: “You, to your credit, told me all along it was bull****.”
Arum, 93, came out swinging in an exclusive interview with this newspaper last night after an explosive lawsuit claimed that his son-in-law, Top Rank President Todd duBoef, hid dealings with Kinahan from him and major broadcaster ESPN.
The boxing hall of famer explained he takes full responsibility for the company’s relationship with Kinahan, telling us that he had fallen for the conman’s “compelling story” that he had stepped away from crime.
But founder and CEO of Top Rank Arum said if he had been aware the Dubliner remained head of one of the world’s largest €1bn drugs and arms cartels, he wouldn’t have “touched him with a 10-foot pole”.
Last week, a former Top Rank manager claimed that duBoef asked him to “lie” to senior ESPN executives and claim he had “nothing to do with Kinahan” so they could land Tyson Fury fights.
Kinahan had managed to build up a powerful role in the game as he managed the sport’s biggest star Fury on his famous comeback after a struggle with depression.
It’s claimed that duBoef desperately needed some big fights to please ESPN after signing a $90m per year media rights contract in 2017 and reached a deal with Kinahan as part of his efforts to get Fury to fight with Top Rank.
The lawsuit, filed in California’s Federal Court, alleged duBoef said Arum was “too old” and would never understand he was building a global media company and needed Kinahan’s muscle to compete with the UFC and expand in Europe.
But speaking to The Irish Sun last night, Arum slammed the legal statements saying that he and his son-in-law were a part of the deal with Kinahan to get Fury on their books in early 2019.
He added that he himself had flown to Dubai to speak to the mob boss.
Fiery Arum told us: “That is total bull****. It’s not true. Everybody knew about it, everybody was part of it. This is absolutely crazy. We made the deal with Kinahan but everybody was on board, me included.
“Nobody did anything behind my back. Todd was always involved in it and Todd flew to Dubai with me.
“The picture that’s painted, ‘here was this old man and all these people are scheming behind his back making the deal with Kinahan’ and so forth. That’s not true. To say that this was done without my knowledge is crazy — or without the knowledge of ESPN, that’s nuts.
STEEPED IN CRIME
“Of course ESPN were aware.”
In a series of interviews with our reporter in 2020, 2021 and early 2022, Arum was repeatedly told that Kinahan remained steeped in transnational organised crime.
“You, to your credit, told me all along it was bull****.”
Bob Arum
However, Arum at the time continued to back Kinahan and revealed to our journalist that he paid up to €8million to Kinahan to broker Fury’s second and third fights against Deontay Wilder as well as bouts against Otto Wallin and Tom Schwarz.
Arum only cut total ties with Kinahan — as did Fury — after the US government sanctioned the drug lord and other senior members of his cartel based in Dubai.
‘I FELL FOR THE THING’
But Arum — who once promoted Muhammad Ali — insists that he was always open about his relationship with Kinahan.
He says interviews with The Irish Sun are proof of that, adding that he may call our reporter as a witness in the lawsuit.
Arum told us: “Remember at the time, things around his reputation were debatable. I fell for the thing he was a bad guy but he had changed and he had gone legit.
“You kept saying that’s not true, he’s still a mob guy. Remember we had arguments about it, you and I?
‘IF I WAS THE FOOL, IT’S ON ME’
“But again, nobody went behind my back. If I was the fool, it’s on me. If I had known what I do about Kinahan now, I wouldn’t have touched him with a 10-foot pole. None of us would have.
“But it was a compelling story that you, to your credit, told me all along, that it was bull****.”
And he added: “But I was open about it. And if I had to call a witness, we would call you because you and I had discussed this at length when it happened.”
In another allegation in Keane’s $25m lawsuit for breach of contract at Top Rank, he claims duBoef had been dealing with Kinahan as far back as 2016.
KINAHAN IN DUBAI
Following the 2016 Rio Olympics, Belfast puncher Michael Conlan went professional and signed with Top Rank Promotions.
However, Conlan was also managed by MTK, a company co-founded by mob boss Kinahan.
Kinahan remains in his Dubai bolthole but under serious pressure due to the US government sanctions, put in place in April 2022.
Asked if he has had any contact with Kinahan since the sanctions, Arum snapped: “Are you kidding?
“Of course not.
“I mean, you know, my country doesn’t put sanctions on an individual for no reason.”
Arum says the lawsuit is with his lawyers.
