Earnings due to former world champion boxer Carl Frampton were allegedly withheld during his time with ex-manager and promoter Barry McGuigan, the Belfast High Court heard today.
The Belfast fighter claims he wasn’t paid properly under an arrangement which “unjustly enriched” Cyclone Promotions. A judge was also told Mr Frampton’s parents believe they lodged up to £1 million raised through selling tickets to their son’s bouts into Mr McGuigan’s bank account. The boxer has issued a writ in Northern Ireland over an alleged failure to pay sums due in purse monies.
The action is being taken against Barry McGuigan, his wife Sandra McGuigan and Cyclone Promotions (UK) Ltd. It forms the basis of Mr Frampton’s counter-claim to separate legal proceedings brought against him by Cyclone Promotions at the High Court in London.
Mr Frampton, a former two-weight world champion nicknamed “The Jackal”, split with the McGuigan family-run Cyclone Promotions last summer. In November it emerged that the 30-year-old Tigers Bay-born fighter is facing an action from his former promoters. Those proceedings centre on an alleged breach of contract. At the time Mr Frampton’s lawyers pledged to defend the action and counter-claim on a number of grounds.
A lawsuit has now been brought by the boxer against Barry and Sanda McGuigan, as directors in the now dissolved Cyclone Promotions (UK) Ltd, and another company set up in the same name. The writ refers to contracts for bouts in Northern Ireland, England and the United States. But a preliminary hearing is underway to decide the proper jurisdiction for Mr Frampton’s action.
Counsel for the McGuigans and Cyclone Promotions argued that the case should be heard at the High Court in London. Liam McCollum QC insisted it was the only forum for deciding complaints of mismanagement and alleged unjust enrichment. Mr McCollum also challenged the validity of the writ and confirmed that all of the boxer’s claims against the defendants were categorically denied.
But Gavin Millar QC, for Mr Frampton, disputed points raised on the issue of domicile. Mr McGuigan was famed as an “Irish/Northern Irish” boxer during his own world championship-winning career who, according to a press interview, still returns to the region up to four times a year, the court heard.
He became Mr Frampton’s manager after coming to Belfast to sign him in 2009. But Mr Justice Horner was told the boxer would have decided differently if he’d known Mr McGuigan and his wife had been banned from being company directors for five years after a previous venture was wound-up with debts of £80,000 back in 1996.
In an affidavit he stated: “I do not believe I would have signed an agreement with Barry McGuigan if he had told me about his disqualification as a director.”
The hearing continues.