PROFESSIONAL boxing’s report card for the year 2023 is liberally covered in low marks for integrity, transparency, accountability, credibility and sustainability. Offsetting the low marks are high marks for greed, mendacity, and malevolence.

A story that appeared on the website of the Irish Sunday World newspaper on December 27 would in any other sport make news headlines everywhere, raising a veritable cri de coeur. But this is boxing — a sport, business and culture where anything goes.

The story revolves around an unredacted transcript of a California court hearing which took place in August this year. It took place as part of an ongoing legal battle against Irish mobster Daniel Kinahan over his now defunct management company MTK’s alleged attempt to illegally poach US fighter Jojo Diaz from boxing manager Moses Heredia.