Joe Molloy

And this was a world where lots of cities wanted big fights.

And of course, MTK still had its fighters.

Now, for non-boxing fans, we should say that this much-anticipated fight never happened.

It still hasn't happened, and there were a multitude of reasons for that at the time.

For instance, in 2021, Fury was obligated to offer Deontay Wilder a rematch.

For our purposes, suffice to say, the backlash to Kinahan's involvement was not the reason.

For Kinahan himself, though, this attempted coming-out party in 2020 did mark a fork in the road.

All things considered,

it probably backfired.

It brought extra attention, especially overseas.

Take the UK, for example.

A key moment there came in 2021, when a year on from Tyson Fury's Instagram post, a BBC Panorama investigation aired.

That was the opener to the Panorama programme, and it garnered a big audience.

Many of those watching would only have been vaguely aware of the connotations around Kinahan and his involvement in boxing.

Brilliantly presented by the journalist Dara McIntyre, it was a big talking point in the UK media in the subsequent days.

And whatever about convincing people back home of his credentials, Kinahan did elect to fight the PR war in the UK, or it might still be won.

He opened lines of communications with TalkSport and they, very memorably, voiced up and played out his statement.

I have tried my best to ignore the allegations that are constantly made about me.

I have dedicated myself to my work in boxing for over 15 years.

I've started from the bottom and worked my way up.