Joe Calzaghe may not do battle in the ring anymore, but he scored one last important victory in the courts, defeating his former promoter Frank Warren.

The High Court ruled that Warren’s Sports Network Limited must pay Calzaghe $2.8 million, the amount that Calzaghe claimed Warren owed him from his fight with Bernard Hopkins in 2008.

According to the Associated Press:

The undefeated former super middleweight champion claimed that Warren persuaded him to sign contracts under duress while he was suffering dehydration and hunger preparing for fights.

Warren argued he did not owe the boxer. He claimed Calzaghe owed him $1.4 million for breaking his contract over his last fight with Roy Jones Jr. in November.

The BBC , however, reported that the judge in the case rejected the claims from Calzaghe that he was made to sign contracts under duress.

Warren said in a statement that he never disputed the fact that he owed Calzaghe money from the Hopkins fight, he just says that they were in disagreement over the amount. He also said in the statement that they plan to appeal the ruling.

From Frank Warren:

Sports Network, throughout the litigation, has always said that it would pay Joe Calzaghe but we disputed the sum he claimed (paragraph 16 of the Judgment: “The Claimant [Sports Network Limited] does not dispute that a substantial sum of money is owed by the Claimant to the Defendant [Joe Calzaghe] in respect of the bout with Mr Hopkins although it does dispute that the sum owed is as large as alleged by the Defendant”). We were right to do so and feel vindicated in defending Joe’s claim which we have reduced by almost £1.5million. Our lawyers have advised Sports Network to appeal to reduce the sum even further, which it fully intends to do.

The case came to life when Warren and Calzaghe split in 2008. Calzaghe went on to self-promote his fight with Roy Jones in November, prompting Warren to sue him for money that he felt he was due. Calzaghe then counter-sued for his Hopkins money, leading us to this ruling.

Apparently, Warren and Calzaghe had every bit of their relationship in writing and detailed contracts, but the judge couldn’t accept that Warren could not produce a single bit of evidence that Calzaghe had agreed to continue his relationship through the Jones fight. Warren was claiming that a verbal agreement was in place, but with his history of solid bookkeeping and records, a lack of evidence was what cost him.

Calzaghe retired from boxing in February, with an undefeated record of 46-0.