‘looked after’ | 

Carl Frampton doubles down on comments he has ‘no regrets’ working with Daniel Kinahan’s MTK

‘MTK were able to secure these for me. I was looked after by MTK, and that’s all I can say’

Tue 3 Oct 2023 at 09:46

Boxer Carl Frampton has doubled down on comments that he has “no regrets” working with MTK Global, the boxing promoters founded by crime boss Daniel Kinahan.

The Belfast man (36), who was signing copies of his new autobiography in Dublin, told the Sunday World that MTK, the sports event and management company founded by Kinahan, got him the biggest pay-out of his career.

Frampton said that it wasn’t that he didn’t care about Kinahan’s involvement in organised crime, but he just focused on his boxing.

Mr Frampton has now told The Hard Shoulder MTK Global never paid him money but advised him and connected him with other promoters to organise fights.

“You hear and you see these things in the press, but I signed up to a company with other fighters like Tyson fury, Billy Joe Saunders, some of the Smith brothers – a good roster of fighters,” he said.

“You see people talking about [Mr Kinahan] and asking about it, but over the border – without sounding horrible – it wasn’t as much as a big deal up there in Belfast.”

He said it was “a shock” when the US Treasury launched a crackdown on the Kinahans, but insisted: “Boxing is a business”.

“As you get a bit older and you’ve won the titles and you’ve won the fights, you want to have better security for your family,” he added.

“MTK were able to secure these for me. I was looked after by MTK, and that’s all I can say.”

Frampton, who was the WBA and IBF super-bantamweight champion as well as the WBA featherweight champion during his career, signed an advisory deal with MTK in 2017 after an acrimonious split from his former manager Barry McGuigan.

Kinahan’s involvement in organised crime was well documented by the time Frampton signed with MTK, and last year the US government offered a $5 million reward for information that will lead to the Dubliner’s arrest and conviction for participating in transnational organised crime.

However, speaking to the Sunday World at his book signing, Frampton said he had no regrets for signing to MTK despite Kinahan’s crime links.

“I joined MTK because they were a boxing promotional company, managerial company, working in America, working everywhere really, with some of the biggest promoters in the world. Do I regret joining them? I absolutely don’t.”

He said he wasn’t paid by MTK but they set up deals that made him significant money.

“They never paid me. They done deals with promoters.

“They spoke to the promoters and the promoters make the payments. They [MTK] ensured that I was paid well from the promoters. The other stuff doesn’t concern me. I was a boxer boxing and that was it. No regrets.”

Asked if he didn’t care about Kinahan’s criminal activities, he said: “It’s not that I don’t care. Obviously, I’ve got a heart, but I was a boxer focusing on boxing and they managed my boxing career very well.

“They got me by far the biggest pay-out of my career against Josh Warrington as a challenger for the world title.

“They kind of helped out with the Windsor Park fight [against Luke Jackson in 2018]. Obviously Frank Warren put it on.”

Asked again did Kinahan’s involvement in organised crime not concern him, he said: “I just focused on boxing mate. That’s all I focused on.”

Frampton thanks MTK in the acknowledgements of the book, which was written by former MTK chief strategy officer Paul D. Gibson.

Gibson was named as a defendant alongside Kinahan in a civil case in the US in a high-profile legal wrangle between Heredia Boxing Management and MTK, over Mexican boxer Jo Jo Diaz.

The Diaz case was not the only legal case concerning MTK taking over management of boxers.

Frampton had an acrimonious split from Barry McGuigan’s Cyclone Promotions when he signed to MTK in 2017.

Frampton and Cyclone Promotions sued each other in a multi-million High Court case in Belfast with Frampton suing for alleged withheld earnings and McGuigan counter-suing for breach of contract.

Both sides denied the allegations against them, and the case was eventually settled out of court in 2020.

Frampton discussed their falling out when he appeared on The Late Late Show on Friday night. “I understand that Barry is a hero to many people. He was a hero to me. But if you read this book, and still think he is a hero, you need to give your head a wobble.”

Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty, who provided the foreword for Frampton’s book, interjected saying: “I mean, that’s one side of the story Carl, I have to say.” McGuigan previously spoke out against Daniel Kinahan in a 2021 BBC Panorama programme on Kinahan’s involvement in boxing.

He said other figures in the boxing world were too frightened to speak out about Kinahan.

Frampton criticised the Panorama programme at the time, saying: “It’s ‘investigative journalism’ but I don’t know how much investigation was done.”