CARL Frampton has admitted that one of the reasons he is still challenging in the ring is to prove himself a better boxer than Barry McGuuigan.
The north Belfast boxer was speaking before he met his former mentor for a high-profile fight in a quite different but arguably more exposing arena - open court.
It was not only boxing fans who followed each punch and parry over 19 days of evidence in the high court as the two Irish sporting legends slugged it out over a multimillion pound purse.
Legal insiders suggest that the cost of staging this particular contest will have hit the £1 million mark in fees for the phlanx of heavyweight solicitors and barristers drafted in for the case which has been taken more than three years to reach the courtroom.
With a settlement reached in place of a judgment, the final bell has been rung on a friendship once so strong McGuigan's sons Shane and Jake were groomsmen at Frampton's 2013 wedding and the boxer stood as groomsman for his former trainer Shane for his 2016 nuptials.
The battle between the pugilists, however, is not over as Frampton signalled: "My focus now, as always, remains on becoming a three weight world champion in 2021."
That achievement is what he said in an interview in September will cement his place as "Ireland's best ever fighter... ahead of Steve Collins, ahead of Barry McGuigan, ahead of Katie Taylor. That is what I want".
Of course that is also what McGuigan predicted for him all those years ago.
