CARL FRAMPTON’S well-publicised fallout with the McGuigan boxing family, and subsequent bitter court case he brought against them back in 2020, has again hit the headlines.

It comes in the wake of the publication of the former and now retired world champion’s autobiography this past week. Simply titled My Autobiography, Frampton’s version of the acrimonious split and legal battle he fought against his former manager, promoter and trainer takes up a lot of space.

In the flurry of media appearances and interviews undertaken to promote the book, Frampton — known as The Jackal during his long and very successful ring career — did not hold back in his withering criticisms of Barry McGuigan and his family, to the point where he appears determined to ensure their reputations are shredded and left in the gutter.

Frampton says: “I had full and complete trust in these people [the McGuigans], to the point where they would put contracts in front of me and say ‘sign that’ and I would just sign it thinking ‘these guys have my best interest at heart’.”

In another interview, Frampton alleges that the McGuigans took significant sums of money from his purses for their own ‘personal expenses’ without either his knowledge or permission. Those personal expenses, Frampton claims, included bills for ladies’ designer shoes at a Manhattan clothing store, sunbed sessions, along with a 10-day family holiday in New York on one occasion immediately after he had fought there against Leo Santa Cruz.

Frampton took the McGuigan promotional and management company, Cyclone Promotions, to the High Court in Belfast in September 2020 over claims of withheld of earnings to the tune of £6 million.

This allegedly involved purse fees, broadcasting rights, ticket sales and merchandising. In turn, the McGuigans counter-sued Frampton over breach of contract.

In November 2020 both parties reach a confidential out-of-court settlement, which Frampton stated at the time he was very happy with.

Carl Frampton is not the only fighter to have alleged mistreatment while fighting under the McGuigan banner.

Josh Taylor also made such claims before his own bitter split with trainer Shane McGuigan and the McGuigan family promotional company a few years back.

Adding to the hostility from the McGuigan side was the decision of both Frampton and Taylor to sign with the now defunct MTK management company, founded originally as MGM by former British middleweight champion and now pundit, Matthew Macklin, in conjunction with Daniel Kinahan.

Based in Dubai, Kinahan is claimed to be the head of a major international drugs and murder cartel by both the Irish and US authorities, with the latter placing a $5 million bounty on his head as part of an active investigation into his alleged criminal activities.

Interestingly — and for many also damningly — when asked questions about this time with MTK and his relationship with Kinahan while promoting the book, Frampton blithely stated that “he [Daniel Kinahan] looked after me.”

In a BBC Panorama documentary shown two years ago into the role of Kinahan in top-flight boxing at the time, Barry McGuigan was one of the very few within the sport willing to appear to air his concerns over Kinahan’s role in managing fighters and helping organise major boxing events around the world.

McGuigan is not a man who ever lacked courage inside the ring, and his appearance on the BBC Panorama documentary confirmed that he does not lack it outside the ring either.

However, currently his reputation and that of his family is being savagely impugned by Carl Frampton in a campaign of vilification that has left the High Court in Belfast and is now being waged in the media and within the pages of a newly published book. 

Barry McGuigan’s legacy as a ring legend was cemented by his ability to unite people across the confessional, religious and national divide during the height of the Troubles in the 1980s in the North of Ireland.

His renditions of the classic Irish folk song Danny Boy after his fights remain among the most iconic moments in UK sporting history. 

His son Shane, meanwhile, has over the past decade established a justifiable reputation as one of the country’s top trainers, stewarding the previously mentioned Frampton and Taylor to world titles while also training a roster of top British talent that has included the likes of David Haye, George Groves and Lawrence Okolie, among others.

Shane McGuigan began working with Frampton in 2013 and immediately he did both their careers took off.

Frampton won his first world title in the form of the IBF junior featherweight belt against Spain’s Kiko Martinez in 2014 on a memorably raucous night at the sold-out Titanic Quarter in Belfast.

He went on to successfully defend his title against Manchester’s Scott Quigg in a highly anticipated domestic battle in 2016.

Carl Frampton’s biggest and most consequential contest under Shane McGuigan came against the previously mentioned Leo Santa Cruz in 2016 and 2017.

The Irishman won the first fight by majority decision after a pulsating back-and-forth affair at the Barclays Centre in New York.

Up for grabs was the vacant WBA Super World Featherweight title, which Frampton lost in the rematch the following year — the judges on that occasion giving the nod to Cruz.

It wasn’t long after the rematch that Frampton split with the McGuigans in a welter of acrimony that has not abated since.

Boxing has had its fair share of acrimonious splits involving fighters and trainers and promoters down through the years. With so much on the line, with a fighter’s earning capacity significantly enhanced or reduced on the back of just one performance, the pressures involved are immense, as is the greed and depth of emotions.

Carl Frampton may have retired from the ring in 2021, but based on his new book and eagerness to “just put another nail in the coffin” of his long-running dispute with the McGuigan family, he hasn’t retired from fighting.

Fair enough — this, after all, is his prerogative. But then as someone wise once said: “Those who seek revenge should dig two graves.”