Carl’s fans know the score with Mcguigan

BARRY Mcguigan’s sideswipe at Carl Frampton in an interview with the Sunday Times reignited an argument the former WBA featherweight champion is never likely to win.

The 63-year-old was both Frampton’s manager and promoter for eight years, until the partnership with Cyclone Promotions broke down in 2017, eventually leading to an acrimonious court case.

Ahead of a BBC documentary on his gym, Mcguigan said: “I took him into my home; made him part of my family.

“I didn’t take a penny off him for over two years until he won the Commonwealth title.

“He [Frampton] can say what he wants but he knows he could not have achieved anything without me or my family and the work that we put into him.”

The idea that Mcguigan welcomed Frampton into his family, only for the Belfast boxer to betray him makes for a nice line.

But anyone who read Carl Frampton’s compelling autobiography knows better. In the book, Frampton gave a damning and detailed account of how he was used as a ‘cash cow’.

Frampton’s only crime was naivety, in allowing the Mcguigans to both manage and promote him — two roles that require a level of separation.

More to the point, Frampton is arguably the best male boxer Ireland has ever produced. Shane Mcguigan deserves full credit for training him to the world title, but the idea that Carl would ‘not have achieved anything’ without Barry lacks credibility.

With bags of ability and a huge fanbase, Frampton was a godsend for any promoter.

Indeed, it is tempting to wonder what more Frampton could have achieved if he hadn’t left Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom in 2013.

Perhaps there’s no point picking over history. Frampton — who clapped back with a thinly veiled dig on Twitter on Sunday night — won the battle in the court of public opinion some time ago. He can move on from this safe in the knowledge most fight fans know the score.