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25th March 2024
10:23am GMT
Former World champion and boxing manager Barry McGuigan has hit out at his old fighter Carl Frampton, claiming that the Belfast man "could not have achieved anything without me or my family."
McGuigan signed Frampton as young professional boxer, and together they climbed the ladder as manager and fighter to win world titles in two weight divisions, beating household names like Leo Santa Cruz and Scott Quigg.
The Tigers Bay native even made it into the pound for pound top 10 list, and in 2016 was named the Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year, the highest individual accolade that a boxer can win.
McGuigan's son, Shane was also Frampton's trainer, while his other son Blaine was the promotor, and under their company Cyclone Promotions, they ran every detail of the fighter's career.
However, things turned very sour when the champ was hit with a massive tax bill out of the blue, and he began asking questions about where the money he was generating was being spent, and it ultimately lead to a very messy court case that was ended through a settlement.
The now retired boxer has no problem sharing his grievances about what happened between himself and the McGuigan family, and went into great detail in his book about the court case, and publicly criticised him on The Late Late Show.
Now, with a four-part documentary about to be released on the McGuigan family, and their boxing dynasty, Barry has hit back at Carl Frampton.
“It's just a disappointment. Pretty deep disappointment," Barry McGuigan told The Sunday Times.
“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.
“Very disappointing. That’s it. We’ve gone on. Shane has produced champion after champion.
“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.”
McGuigan also noted that he himself isn’t in the “International Boxing Hall of Fame for no reason”, and that he believes his son Shane will too end up in it, after recently having been named BBBoC (the British Boxing Board of Control) Trainer of the Year, for the second time in his coaching career.
When Frampton left for MTK, a string of McGuigan’s fighters followed suit.
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