Shane McGuigan and Christine Frampton argued in Vegas before threats of legal action court hears

A disagreement between Christine Frampton and Shane McGuigan in Las Vegas may have been the first major step toward Carl Frampton taking legal action against former manager Barry McGuigan.

‘The Jackal’s’ wife and his former coach had a disagreement after the fighters second fight with Leo Santa Cruz in January of 2017 the High Court heard on Friday.

The exchange of words, which followed Frampton’s first career defeat and his WBA featherweight world title rematch with the Mexican, was followed by a threat of legal action over unpaid money, QC Gavin Millar, Counsel for Frampton put forward.

Under cross examination for the third day running, Blain McGuigan told the court “After the Santa Cruz fight on January 28 I knew that there had been argument between my brother and Carl’s wife and then the next time I heard of any dealings between Carl and his accountant and us… there was a threatening letter.”

Mr Millar then read out an email which suggested Frampton was annoyed because he still hadn’t been paid for his fight with Leo Santa Cruz in July 2016.

It also said that the now three weight world title hopeful had been advised to take legal action if payment wasn’t made within a week.

A second email was read to the court that said “should this payment not be forthcoming in the next seven days he should take immediate legal advice.”

In response, McGuigan the oldest of three brothers involved in Frampton’s career responded: “These emails and following probably a heated phone call, which is probably what he was referring to, he was paid his money. That’s what I know”.

Mr Millar argued payment only came after the threat of legal action,with counsel arguing that alleged breaches of duty entitled his client to terminate the International Promotional Agreement (IPA) with Cyclone to which McGuigan replied: “I disagree.”

Mr Millar said: “You failed to conduct the financial arrangements surrounding the rights you say you promoted for him in a transparent and open manner”.

McGuigan insisted: “Carl was always paid exactly what we discussed and he always knew the workings of each deal”.

The barrister then put it to the Cyclone director that details surrounding the true income from fights were hidden from Framtpon, he responded:

“Nope. Everything was discussed with Carl. He was completely informed and he never made any complaint throughout his whole time with us”.

“You concealed the true profits and misrepresented his fees by inflating expenses and the cost of fights”.

“That’s not true,”. was McGuigan’s response.

“You deliberately delayed large payments to him for lengthy periods so that you could retain the benefit of these monies”.

McGuigan replied: “I’ve explained the whole process. Carl didn’t make any complaints at the time”.

Millar said: “Those were serious breaches of the trust he imposed in you as the son of his manager in these promotional arrangements”.

McGuigan replied: “I disagree. He knew me as a promoter. We were friends throughout and we’d a very good relationship and discussed pretty much every detail of every show”.

Earlier on day 19 of proceedings the court heard allegations from Frampton’s counsel that Cyclone received £648,000 from the Santa Cruz fight, but didn’t tell the boxer about.

Indeed, Mr Millar argued Cyclone had kept the money hoping it wouldn’t be address post their 2017 split.

McGuigan explained: “We told him that we received our part of the payment. He was aware of that. He’d already received his purse.”

Only for Frampton’s legal representative to counter “He’d received that sum of money representing the net value of the $1m purse, and that was where you were hoping things would be left. He’d leave the arrangement with that, and you’d keep the $850,000.”

McGuigan said: “That’s not true. We were working on the overall income after the event.”

Mr Millar replied: “But you wanted to make sure that he didn’t know about the $850,000, because that would become an issue as indeed it is in these proceedings.”

McGuigan insisted: “No we were completely clear with Carl about how we were still settling the event.”

Frampton is suing former manager Barry McGuigan for withheld earnings up to £6m.

McGuigan has a separate counter claim for breach of contract.