IF THERE has been any year in which boxing exposed its diseased soul to the world, that year was 2022.

The extraordinary joint press conference held in Dublin on April 12 by the Irish, US and British authorities to announce financial sanctions against the so-called Kinahan Organised Crime Group, implicated in the importation of drugs into Europe from South America on a grand scale, along with a raft of murders and arms dealing, was well-nigh unprecedented in the annals of a sport whose relationship with organised crime traces a long and ignoble history.

This is because, of the principal members of the otherwise known Kinahan Cartel — named specifically during said joint press conference as targets of law enforcement — Daniel Kinahan had been operating within top flight boxing for years.