Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Mcguigan: Frampton madelots ofmoney withme
» Mcguigan hits back in court fight » World title bout money questioned
BARRY Mcguigan yesterday branded High Court claims he had Carl Frampton tied to a so-called slave contract as “nonsense”.
The boxing manager rejected allegations the fighter was under “lock and key” at the height of his career to stop him from exploring other opportunities.
He also denied manipulating figures to declare a loss from Mr Frampton’s world title contests staged in Belfast.
Mr Mcguigan insisted: “We never tried to pull the wool over Carl Frampton’s eyes, ever.”
The two sports stars are locked in a legal battle over the acrimonious ending of their partnership in 2017.
Mr Frampton, 33, is suing his ex-manager and Cyclone Promotions for alleged withheld earnings of up to £6million.
In a counter-suit, Mr Mcguigan is claiming against the Belfast-born boxer for breach of contract.
Both men deny the respective allegations against them.
As his cross-examination continued on day 12 of the case, Mr Mcguigan was pressed on an International Promotional Agreement signed in 2015.
The court heard the deal involved the rights to Mr Frampton’s fights for three years and could potentially be extended by nearly two more years.
According to counsel for the boxer, Gavin Millar QC, a clause prohibited his client from any other promotional contracts.
The barrister said: “It’s lock and key, isn’t it? You might as well have put the handcuffs on him.”
Mr Mcguigan insisted the arrangement provided the “flexibility” for the boxer to work with other promoters.
He added: “He got the very best fights available to him and he got the best money.”
But the barrister cited a term Mr Mcguigan used in his memoir about an arrangement from his own boxing days.
“It is a slave contract, isn’t it Mr Mcguigan?” he asked.
Mr Mcguigan replied: “That’s a nonsense comment if you look at what happened with his career.
“Look at the opportunities he had, look at the success he had and the amount of money he made. That is a ridiculous comment.”
It was put to him that at that point in Mr Frampton’s career, having just won a world title, he could have “tested the market” f or promotional opportunities.
Again, however, Mr Mcguigan described the suggestion as “ridiculous” and pointed to how he guided the boxer. He said: “He got the very best fights out there in the super-bantamweight division, avoided the dangermen and got wonderful opportunities and made lots of money. “I don’t know how I could have handled his career better, I really don’t.”
He was told that it would have been in the boxer’s interests to see what other deals were on offer.
Mr Millar submitted: “[The IPA] copper-bottom guaranteed cast-iron rights over the rest of his career for nearly five years.”
He suggested the boxer might have been tempted by a “bigger, better promoter” and that the manager wanted to prevent that happening.
Mr Mcguigan answered: “It worked both ways. Obviously we gave him the best opportunity but I’m not sitting here and saying we didn’t want to be protected ourselves given the efforts we put in too.”
When it was put to him that his son Blain was named promoter to avoid any questions about a potential conflict of interests, he responded: “I disagree, there was no conflict. We got him the very best opportunities and he got the best results. That’s it.”
Ticket sales, purse fees and sponsorship arrangements for some of the boxer’s big hometown shows in Belfast also came under scrutiny.
In September 2014, Mr Frampton defeated Kiko Martinez in front of a crowd of up to 16,000 at Belfast’s Titanic Quarter to take the IBF world super-bantamweight title.
Referring to figures given for the contest, Mr Millar said a loss of £120,000 was reported on declared income of £1.3million. The barrister added: “You manipulated the figures to make it look like this fight was loss-making when in fact it wasn’t.”
Mr Mcguigan replied: “No, we didn’t manipulate the figures, no.”
The hearing continues.