{"id":167460,"date":"2025-09-29T05:52:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/167460\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T05:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:52:16","slug":"it-wont-be-easy-to-break-kinahans-grip-on-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/167460\/","title":{"rendered":"It won\u2019t be easy to break Kinahans\u2019 grip on boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barry McGuigan, the former world champion boxer, has told of his certainty that the net is closing on the organised crime boss Daniel Kinahan while warning that the gangster\u2019s influence is still \u201clooming large\u201d over Irish boxing. <\/p>\n

The Co Monaghan man said nailing the Dubai-based Dublin kingpin was a huge task \u201cbut it\u2019s going to happen\u201d.<\/p>\n

Noting that sanctions were tightening around Kinahan, he said: \u201cBut he\u2019s still there, looming large and it is worrying for the sport. I see the malign influence of the Kinahan gang manifesting in different ways in boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGuigan believes influential figures linked to the Kinahan family continue to offer advice in the background on occasion, and that loyalties fractured as a result of the cartel\u2019s involvement have not been fully resolved within the often lucrative sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still see the intermingling of the Kinahan gang \u2026 and it is is worrying for the sport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I know the authorities are working hard<\/a> to try to nail this guy, and I have every faith that they will eventually do that and eliminate him. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it won\u2019t be easy. I never one minute imagined that it would be easy, but it\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGuigan\u2019s comments came three years after US authorities designated Kinahan a significant transnational criminal in April 2022, offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.<\/p>\n

\"Barry<\/p>\n

Barry McGuigan won gold in the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton<\/p>\n

AP<\/p>\n

Kinahan, 48, who founded the boxing management firm MTK Global<\/a>, has been linked to the cartel responsible for at least 18 murders in Ireland\u2019s gangland feuds.<\/p>\n

Despite MTK\u2019s closure in 2022 amid sanctions, McGuigan said the group\u2019s shadow lingered and still affected the sport\u2019s inner workings and reputation.<\/p>\n

The comments came as McGuigan told movingly of being a \u201cprofoundly unlucky\u201d man following tragedies that had devastated his family, adding he felt he would \u201cnever recover\u201d from the loss.<\/p>\n

Speaking while making a direct plea to the Irish government to invest more in mental health support, he told how his brother, Dermot, who killed himself aged 35 in 1994, \u201cdidn\u2019t need to die\u201d.<\/p>\n

McGuigan suffered more heartache when his daughter, Danika, 33, died just weeks after being diagnosed with cancer in 2019. <\/p>\n

\u2022 I\u2019ll never recover from Nika\u2019s death \u2014 but I owe it to her to go on<\/a><\/p>\n

The 64-year-old Clones man, speaking at the launch of this year\u2019s Real Face of Men\u2019s Health report, commissioned by the charity Movember Ireland, told The Sunday Times that his family had \u201cbeen unlucky, and I\u2019ve just been unlucky, profoundly unlucky\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2023 Ireland recorded a provisional 302 suicides, and data due from the Central Statistics Office is expected to show roughly 80 per cent, or about 240, of those deaths were male. <\/p>\n

Encouragingly, figures indicate a sustained fall from the peaks in the early 2010s, with the overall suicide rate falling 28 per cent between 2000 and 2021. <\/p>\n

Continuing prevention efforts, including a new post-2024 suicide strategy, focus on targeted outreach to men to address persistent risk factors such as a reluctance to seek help, but campaigners say more effort is required.<\/p>\n

While McGuigan welcomed the declining suicide rate, he noted his plea for increased support for mental health services was timely following the death of fellow former boxer Ricky Hatton<\/a> at the age of 46. The Manchester man, found dead in his home on September 14, had a well-documented history of personal struggle and suicide attempts. <\/p>\n

\"Ricky<\/p>\n

Former boxing world champion Ricky Hatton was found dead at his home in Manchester this month<\/p>\n

ANTHONY DEVLIN\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

His death came as latest figures show that 97 per cent of doctors in Ireland saw male patients presenting with suicidal behaviour in the past year.<\/p>\n

McGuigan said: \u201cRicky was a great fella, kind and generous and a good man. It\u2019s terrifying when you think that he ended up like he did. But this is happening all the time and it\u2019s getting worse. Each year it gets worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cRicky brings all this to our attention because he was such a famous guy, and there are loads of guys, other good human beings, nice fellas, members of families, and they are dying all the time. This is a monumental problem in Ireland and in England too.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGuigan said that his brother, Dermot, died because \u201che was mentally unwell and he didn\u2019t have the support system around him\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not blaming anybody over that, but I am saying that he didn\u2019t need to die. He shouldn\u2019t have died,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Me and my medals: Barry McGuigan<\/a><\/p>\n

The loss, he said, shattered the family. \u201cI could have my brother now with me, training with my son Shane. I should be in a great situation with him going on with him training fighters in Ireland and my son training fighters in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we could have had that but that was stolen away from me when he died. His whole life just vanished and it destroyed our family. My mother will never recover from it. Neither will I.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danika McGuigan died five weeks after a stage four bowel cancer diagnosis, having previously recovered from leukaemia at the age of 11. <\/p>\n

Her father said: \u201cMy brother died, my daughter died, my sister got breast cancer. Danika had stage stage four bowel cancer. She died within six weeks in 2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that was an awful blow to us. I don\u2019t know that we\u2019ll ever recover from that. So, that\u2019s what I mean about unlucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Actress<\/p>\n

McGuigan with his actress daughter Danika, who died from bowel cancer in 2019<\/p>\n

NIALL CARSON\/PA<\/p>\n

McGuigan, who became the WBA featherweight world champion in 1985, added: \u201cI don\u2019t want to wallow in my self-pity. Losing my daughter was the worst thing that\u2019s ever happened to me and I don\u2019t know that I\u2019ll ever recover from that, but the point is I\u2019m getting on with my life.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I see sadness and unhappiness all the time. I spend my life trying to encourage people and say, \u2018Look, come on. It will be better. It will really get better. I promise you it will get better.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut people can be hard to reach, a lot of men and women too, but it\u2019s predominantly a male problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Real Face of Men\u2019s Health report, released as part of the campaign, highlights the scale of the crisis. It reveals that two in five (40.2 per cent) men die prematurely \u2014 before the age of 75 \u2014 and most of these deaths are preventable. <\/p>\n

It says that men are 40 per cent more likely than women to die prematurely across Ireland\u2019s five leading causes of premature death.<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s ill health cost Ireland more than \u20ac1 billion in 2023 alone, of which \u20ac716 million was preventable <\/p>\n

And nearly all GPs (97 per cent) saw male patients presenting with suicidal behaviour in the past year \u2014 yet only 14 per cent felt very confident working with them.<\/p>\n

The survey of 2,000 Irish adults finds that about 76 per cent express concern about the state of men\u2019s health. The report urges the government to advance the National Men\u2019s Action Plan with \u20ac10 million initial funding and cross-government support.<\/p>\n

McGuigan, citing the figures, demanded immediate action. \u201cWe really and truly need to do something about it. We need to develop counsellors, bring more people in to help. It\u2019s just about putting the right people and resources into place. We owe it to society to do it. Ireland has a lot of money and it needs to start spending money on developing in this area.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurely to goodness we can get a really good team of people that can get to the kids before it gets too late, because you reach a point where you cannot talk them down. We owe them not to allow it to get to that stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Barry<\/p>\n

McGuigan is a big supporter of the Movember movement<\/p>\n

BEN BRADY\/INPHO<\/p>\n

In a direct message to Miche\u00e1l Martin, the taoiseach, he said: \u201cIf I had the taoiseach right beside me, I would be saying to him, \u2018It is a major problem and it needs to be addressed, like yesterday.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Dismissing any excuses around cost, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s just not acceptable to say, \u2018Oh no, we can\u2019t afford it,\u2019 that\u2019s just bollocks. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to plug that hole in the bath, stop all this life draining away because it is getting worse and worse and worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGuigan spoke highly of Movember\u2019s mission, saying the charity had been founded 22 years ago in Australia after \u201ctwo guys in a pub said this has got to stop\u201d.<\/p>\n

Movember, now a global charity event, focuses on raising awareness and funds for men\u2019s health issues, including prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health. Participants grow moustaches and take on other challenges to highlight and support local programmes and research. <\/p>\n

McGuigan said that meaningful action would save money in the long term and start saving lives right away.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019m looking and seeing what\u2019s happening with the amount of suicides<\/a>, and it is becoming a huge, huge issue. And unless the governments of Ireland and Britain actually start putting some funding into that, getting to talk these kids through their difficulties, it\u2019s going to cost stupid, stupid money [to address it later].\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that unless funding and support \u201ccomes from the government, it\u2019s not going to work\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they need to be willing to spend a lot of money on this. I know that Movember will need them halfway because they\u2019ve got some funding. But Movember need funding and they need help from the government,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Optimistic about change, McGuigan said: \u201cSo it can be done. Things can improve. Of course it can be done. I\u2019m one of these people that believe that if you work hard enough on anything, you\u2019ll achieve your objective. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just need dedicated people, professional people committing to it. And we need to be able to pay them. Once the proper people get to those that are affected by depression and mental health, they can be helped enormously. And they can certainly seriously reduce the suicide numbers and we need to just get on with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there are lots of things like that out there and we\u2019re all here just trying to say, \u2018Look, come on. Let\u2019s get it going. Let\u2019s make Ireland an example to the rest of the world.\u2019 So I am asking that we help resolve this problem, that we embrace it, because I don\u2019t want the situation to get worse and worse and worse. Wherever I need to go to help put that message across, I will go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 If you are affected by any of the issues in this article, please contact the Samaritans on 116 123<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barry McGuigan, the former world champion boxer, has told of his certainty that the net is closing on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-167460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}