Nicola Tallant joined Ger and Eoin on this Tuesday's OTB AM, as we discussed the "jaw-dropping" statement given by Daniel Kinahan to Talksport yesterday.
The British radio station yesterday aired a full statement from Kinahan - read by an actor - in which he said he remains a major part of the international boxing community, denied the continued allegations that he is a member of the Kinahan cartel, and also denied that anybody associated with him threatened those involved with the recent BBC Panorama documentary.
Daniel Kinahan has never been convicted of a crime, but has previously been names in the High Court as being a senior member of the Kinahan crime family.
The Sunday World's investigations editor Nicola Tallant joined us on this morning's OTB AM, as we spoke about Kinahan's latest statement to Talksport and how it's leaving the global boxing stakeholders with a major decision to make.
During the statement, Kinahan denied any involvement with alleged threats made against those involved with the BBC Panorama expose, describing in detail his respect for journalism and the work that journalists do.
However, Tallant says his words were directly contradictory to the platform he was using them with.
"The fact of the matter is he believes in the kind of journalism that allows him an uninterrupted statement, the like of which he gave yesterday, that he's not questioned, he's not criticised, that he's allowed rewrite the course of history, which is what he did in that statement yesterday. There's many parts of it that were pretty jaw dropping.
"The claim about journalists was one, and the other was this whole picture he created of this working-class guy, who grew up in poverty in Dublin and was made good and worked so hard in boxing, and it was his passion and prowess as a business man that had got him where he had got to. He rewrote history there, you know.
"He thinks that when he speaks, everybody should just accept what he's saying and see it the way he sees it.
"I hadn't realised he had that idea of himself as being impoverished. I don't think he would have had - in his living memory - ever felt what poverty is," she said.
"Ill advised on his behalf"
Tallant says that yesterday's lengthy statement is a further example of Kinahan's erratic behavior and determination to be front and centre in the boxing world.
"It's hard to work quite a lot of it out to be honest with you, because you're trying to apply your own logic to someone who is behaving illogically," she says.
"He doesn't want to come on a show that might challenge the allegations of criminality around him. He just wants to say to sports, "I'm here and I'm here to stay. Just because these pesky shows like Panorama and the Irish media say these things, I'm not going anywhere, and I'm still in the background arranging these fights'," she said.
"That to me yesterday was the one thing that could cause problems, and was probably ill advised on his behalf, to really put the ball into the court of Sky Sports and BT sports, by suggesting that - or saying outright - that he's still very much involved in organising those big events," she added.
