Former world champion Carl Frampton has gained the upper hand in his ongoing legal battle with ex-manager and promoter Barry McGuigan.
The two sides are battling it out at the North Ireland High Court.
The Belfast fighter claims that he wasn't paid properly under an arrangement which "unjustly enriched" McGuigan and his company, Cyclone Promotions.
The legal action is Frampton's counter-claim to a separate legal proceeding brought against him by Cyclone Promotions at the High Court in London. When that case was filed, Frampton's lawyers promised that a counter-claim would be filed.
McGuigan went after Frampton for breach of contract. Last summer, Frampton cut ties with McGuigan and is now promoted by Frank Warren.
The boxer also cut ties with head trainer, Shane McGuigan, who is Barry's son. Frampton is now trained by Jamie Moore.
The lawyers for McGuigan argued that the case should be heard at the High Court in London - where his case is being heard.
After some legal wrangling, the judge issued an order on Tuesday - which was music to Frampton's ears - stating that the legal battle should be heard in Belfast.
The court judgement said: "It will now be for the English court to determine whether it considers it should hear a claim brought in London by Cyclone Promotions Limited and Blain McGuigan against Frampton and whether London is the more appropriate forum to hear all the disputes."
Frampton's lawyer John Finucane issued the following statement: "On behalf of my client Carl Frampton, we welcome Mr Justice Horner’s judgment today that his cases against Cyclone Promotions Ltd, Cyclone Promotions (UK) Limited, Barry & Sandra McGuigan will be heard before the High Court in Belfast.
"The Court agreed with our argument that Mr Frampton had a right to have his cases heard here in Belfast, and importantly was first to correctly issue and serve proceedings before a court. Whilst the evidence remains to be tested, and we acknowledge that this will happen expeditiously, we note the questions and comments of the court in today’s judgment.
"As the Court referred to today, we were surprised that, during the course of the jurisdictional dispute, Mr Barry McGuigan chose not to give any evidence. We will now prepare and look forward to the fact that Mr Barry McGuigan, and other members of the McGuigan family, will be required to come to Belfast and give evidence in court under oath.
"One of the many questions which require detailed explanation, and truly at the heart of this case is referred to at para. 18 of today’s judgment which states;
'It has to be recognised that it is exceptionally difficult to follow or understand what has happened or is alleged to have happened because many of the legal entities have used or use the same or similar names. Companies within the Cyclone Connection use the same names as companies that have been dissolved. One of the many issues, which this litigation will have to resolve, is whether this was a deliberate decision on the part of the Cyclone Connection in an effort to sow the seeds of confusion and make it much more difficult and complicated for Frampton to enforce his legal rights.'
"In the context of my client’s contractual claim the court went on to highlight that Mr McGuigan would be live to the obvious conflict of interest if one person acted as both manager and promoter. In fact, Barry McGuigan said the following, which was taken from “Barry McGuigan: The Untold Story”;
“There should never be any financial connection whatsoever, either directly or indirectly, between any manager and any promoter. Even a blind man can see that when you have the one person wearing the two hats – or somebody else wear one for him – then that is an obvious conflict of interest.”
"My client Carl Frampton has always sought a fair, reasonable and successful outcome to this dispute, and whilst he continues to enjoy a highly successful career we will now focus on bringing all outstanding matters before the court at the earliest opportunity."
McGuigan became Frampton's manager after coming to Belfast to sign him in 2009. The judge was told that Frampton would have decided differently if he'd known McGuigan and his wife had been banned from being company directors for five years after a previous venture had debts of £80,000 back in 1996.
In an affidavit obtained by the Belfast Telegraph, Frampton 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 boxer's parents were said to have sold a large number of tickets to their son's fights after the management arrangement was signed.
Referring to Frampton's father, the boxer's lawyer said: "He paid large amounts of ticket money in cash into Barry McGuigan's bank account in Belfast. There's a dispute between him (Mr Frampton Sr) and Mrs McGuigan - he thought possibly up to £1m in cash over that period, she says £220,000. But it's a lot of cash being collected from fights from people in Belfast."
It is further claimed that Frampton's former management company had a conflict of interests and "withheld money due to him" after McGuigan started acting as promoter.
