Joe Molloy

From 2017 into 18, the official line from MTK was that Daniel Kinahan had cut his ties with the company.

Here's Matthew Macklin, for example, speaking in January of 17.

So Daniel took a backward step.

He still advises lots of fighters, Billy Joe Saunders, for example.

I don't think there's another management company like Inboxing.

We feel we can get a better deal for our fighters than anyone else can.

you know that you know the person to put in and we do seem to be doing that and i think fighters talk to fighters it's just it's just like any it's a small world in the boxing world everyone knows everyone really or they know someone who knows someone and by word of mouth and by what they see on the television what they read and see

We are doing the best for our fighters that we represent.

Anyone that's with us, we go above and beyond for.

But naturally, there was acrimony aplenty.

In 2018, MTK announced a boycott of Republic of Ireland media and a boycott of signing fighters from the south.

CEO at the time, Sandra Vaughan, criticised a media witch hunt.

It was a strange time in a sporting sense.

Overnight, the likes of Michael Conlon, an Olympic hero, now turned pro with MTK, seemed to simply disappear from back pages and radio discussions in the South.

It was like MTK fighters no longer existed.

It was also taken as read that no big boxing events could be held in Dublin for the foreseeable.

We can jump to 2020.

In retrospect, 2020, as COVID gripped the world, can be seen as the moment Daniel Kinahan attempted to announce himself as a prominent and global player in the fight game.

KHK Sports had been founded in 2015 by the son of the King of Bahrain.

And in 2020, news came that KHK's new special advisor was Daniel Kinahan.