Acklin was due to fly to Las Vegas to comment on Sky Sports in the super-feather unification match between Shakur Stevenson and Oscar Valdez tonight. However, US authorities denied him entry as they tightened their grip on those with links to Kinahan. While Macklin has no involvement in organized crime, he has had a very public relationship with Kinahan for more than a decade. Sunday World first reported on the ties between Macklin and members of the Kinahan cartel 12 years ago – two years before boxer and Daniel Kinahan co-founded MGM Marbella, which later became MTK. The friendship between Macklin and Kinahan began in 2006 and grew significantly in the following years. Speaking of their friendship in 2015, Kinahan said Macklin was probably his best friend. “I had never met Macklin, even though I knew him,” he told Boxing Monthly magazine. “I only met him after Jamie Moore’s fight in September 2006. He came over a week after the fight. I met him at the airport and from there we became friends. Matthew is probably my best friend.” After Kinahan became Macklin’s friend, members of the cartel regularly watched his fights and then posed for pictures with him. The Sunday World has revealed how members of the cartel hosted crime summits while attending rallies in Macklin. Christy Kinahan arranged a big meeting between gangsters at a battle in Dublin in 2009. At a time when Finglas gang boss Eamonn ‘the Don’ Dunne was wreaking havoc in the Dublin underworld, he ordered a series of gang beatings as he became increasingly paranoid.
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The “fat” Freddie Thompson in a fight of Matthew Macklin in Birmingham The “fat” Freddie Thompson in a fight of Matthew Macklin in Birmingham Christy Kinahan wanted a ceasefire as the killings disrupted the drug business and bought 50 seats along the ring for a Macklin match at Dublin National Stadium and sent Daniel to host a night out for crime figures such as Dunne and collaborator of Brian O ‘Reilly and Fat Freddie Thompson. The following year, we posted photos of Macklin hanging out and hanging out in Birmingham with Kinahan-linked criminals Dean Howe and Liam Brannigan, who are serving sentences for plotting to kill Hutch’s accomplice Gary Hanley.
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Matthew Macklin and Dean Howe Matthew Macklin and Dean Howe Branigan’s cousin, Fat Freddie Thompson, was also present that night and is serving a life sentence for the murder of Daiti Douglas. Thompson’s crew and other associates of the cartel regularly watched Macklin’s fights at the time. In 2011 the Sunday World traveled to Cologne, Germany to observe members of the underworld from Ireland and the United Kingdom gathering for the Macklin WBA’s middleweight title defeat by Felix Sturm. Fat Freddie Thompson’s colleague threatened the Sunday World team that was watching criminals arrive for the party after Macklin’s fight at the Radisson Blu Hotel near the Lanxess Arena.
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Matthew Macklin and Liam Brannigan …
