It has been described as the “noble art” but boxing and its various forms including the bare knuckle version has attracted some less savoury elements.
Over the years many major figures involved in organised crime and the resulting violence have enjoyed close links to the sport.
The Kray twins Ronnie and Reggie were both professional boxers in the early 1950’s before turning to crime and at the height of their power in the 1960’s promoted boxers and attended fights.
Glasgow crime godfather Arthur Thompson snr was a regular at major boxing events in the city until his death in 1993 often hosting tables for his invited guests.
While Irish underworld figure Daniel Kinahan, is a former boxing promoter who co-founded MTK Global, which once represented high-profile fighters including Tyson Fury.
The 48 year old is in currently custody in Dubai following his arrest last month on organised crime charges.
View 5 ImagesAmateur boxers Reggie Kray (left) and Ronnie Kray with their mother Violet Kray(Image: Hulton Archive)
Graeme Pearson, former Director General of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, remembers as a young detective monitoring criminals attended big Glasgow boxing shows at venues like the Albany Hotel in Bothwell Street.
He said:”We would park up outside the hotel to see who was going to the boxing nights and whose company they were in. “You got the likes of the Arthur Thompson’s and many others turning up with the dinner suits.
“Arthur used to wear a white Tuxedo and they would normally be in the company of business people and council officials and it was always interesting to see whose tables they were sitting at.
“When we were on the late shift that was how we spent the early evening, making sure we saw who was in whose company.
“We would also go into the hall itself to see who was at the various tables.
“You saw all the gangsters of the day were all there hob knobbing with the business and council types. “We would then go back late in the night when it was finished just in case there was any trouble.”
View 5 Images(Image: DAILY RECORD)
At the time Graeme was a member of the Strathclyde Police Serious Crime Squad.
He added;””I didn’t see it as innocent for these criminals did not do anything without purpose.
“They would go on to mix with folk who could offer them the chance of property, demolition or security work.
“It was a business opportunity from the point of view of the criminals and a chance to run shoulders with folk.
“I have no doubt they intimidated people because they were able to go freely about these places.”
Graeme says prize money a the time was always in cash which would give opportunities for money laundering.
The boxing events would also provide a cover for criminals from across Britain to meet to discuss business and they would often supply boxers for each others shows.
Graeme recalled one London based gangster coming up to Glasgow to deliver guns.
He was arrested in Byres Road in Glasgow’s West End and caught with an open razor for which he got six months
View 5 Images‘Gastro Gangster’ wrote burger reviews online while his murderous foot soldiers caused mayhem(Image: Supplied)
Graeme added:”The boxers themselves were commodities. “They were being trafficked round the country to get their ‘heads kicked in’ and people were paying money for the pleasure of seeing it.
“You also had betting at the shows and that was an opportunity to corrupt people with the amount of drink being consumed and the atmosphere on the night
“Some people might gamble more than they could afford and the criminals behind the betting would not always want the bet paid off.
“They would much rather have the advantage of getting involved in their business in some ways.
“A good corrupting opportunity.”
Graeme says many unsuspecting guests would not discover who their host was until they arrived at the venue.
He added:”A businessman would turn up and be introduced to someone like Arthur Thompson and that would be the first knowledge they would have of who lay behind the table.
“It would be very difficult for them to say, I shouldn’t be here and leave.
“They would end up spending the evening with them, having their photographs taken and accepting their hospitality which would leave them open in future to approach.
“You had all those crossovers in the boxing environment and I think it maintains to this day.”
Another popular form of boxing linked over the years to criminality is bare knuckle fighting.
Seven years ago footage merged of a fierce bare-knuckle fight in the compound of the home of Edinburgh underworld figure Robert Kelbie in front of spectators.
Blow after blow is exchanged during the five-minute clip until both brawlers are covered in blood.
At the time Kelbie was embroiled in a tit-for-tat feud with Edinburgh cocaine baron Mark Richardson
In 2010, Kelbie, who was convicted of mortgage fraud in 2013, was shot twice in the car park of a health club in Newcraighall, Edinburgh.
His home in the Ratho area of the capital also twice came under attack from gunmen between 2013 and 2016.
View 5 Images(Image: Daily Record)
In 2017 two men who plotted a Scotland v England bare knuckle fight were each jailed for three years.
Scots traveller James McPhee and his English rival Alan Tunney goaded each other on YouTube and arranged to meet for the bout at a travellers’ gathering.
But the planned face-off at the Appleby Horse Fair in Cumbria was foiled after police intercepted the two men.
In December an official bare knuckle boxing night at the Gladiators arena in East Kilbride was abandoned after a mass brawl erupted in the crowd and police were called.
Article continues below