Michael Bisping hasnt had the best of times over the last two months, and he took another hit in a British court today. The former UFC middleweight champion has been involved in a long-running lawsuit with ex-manager Anthony McGann, and was ordered to pay the Wolfslair founder over $400,000 after a long-running trial.
The eleven-day circus raised the ire of the judge and even saw a “scuffle” between Bisping and McGann.
At the heart of the suit was a management contract between the two men that was allegedly signed in 2005, just prior to Bisping’s long UFC run. McGann alleged that he was owed a substantial portion of Bisping’s earnings from 2005 to 2011, and the judge ultimately agreed, awarding him more than £320,000 British pounds – about $426,000 USD.
The Manchester Evening News reports some of the quotes from the judge, who was clearly not enamored with either man.
“McGann had “greatly exaggerated” his claim against the fighter and “put forward false documents and false evidence”, said the judge.”
…
“But, in a damning decision, he said McGann’s evidence in court ‘varied between the aggressive and the obsequious.’
‘In a number of respects his evidence was, in my judgment, plainly untruthful,’ the judge added.
Letters and invoices the agent hoped would boost the value of his claim were ‘recent fabrications’, he said.
Bisping was a ‘more straightforward witness’ but, like McGann, he was guilty of ‘tailoring and trimming his evidence to suit his case’.
Parts of his evidence were ‘incredible and untrue’ and his description of facilities at the Wolfslair gym, in Widnes, was ‘a confected story’.”
The judge also stated that the two men almost certainly inflated Bisping’s expenses for two of the years, allowing him to “defraud” the Australian government in terms of taxes. He commented on their supposed scuffle during the trial as well, something that neither man denied happening.
Finally, he said that they still need to sort out who has to pay the “enormous” legal fees from the long trial. He wouldn’t award costs to Bisping, “even in relation to those issues about which Mr McGann has sought to deceive the court”. But also said it would be an “affront to justice” to make Bisping pay McGann’s legal tab.
All I’ve got out of this situation is that a) Bisping’s bank account just took a hit; and b) Trials in England sound a lot more entertaining than they are in North America.
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