Best ' grudge ' fights

All the way back to Fitzsimmons and Corbett - and probably beyond, for that matter - the Noble Art has sported some pretty ignoble rivalries. The Ketchel v Papke series featured two fighters who couldn't stand each other, for example, and there are many others. Even the great Joe Louis, the consummate professional, allowed himself to get caught up in the hype surrounding the second Schmeling fight. Carmen Basilio couldn't bear Robinson, whom he regarded as a Prima Donna ; Ali was pretty upset by Ernie Terrell, and later shared the intense rivalry with Frazier ; Duran could make a grudge fight out of a Christmas carol service ; Hearns and Hagler had bad blood ; Tyson wasn't too keen on Biggs, and on our own shores we had Cooper v Bugner, Kaylor v Christie and Benn v Eubank.

Simple one, then :

Which do you guys consider to have been the biggest ' grudge ' rivalry, and did it produce a ' grudge ' fight which lived up to the hype, or did it turn out to be a damp squib ? In the latter case, which WAS the best grudge fight, in your opinions ?

Eubank Benn. Home grown, to boot! Oops, and as I read the end of your OP, Hagler Hearns of course!! Conversely, Gatti & Ward had a great admiration, respect & friendship, but still gave us three of the most intense bits of pagger imaginable!! MAB turned the Naz fight into a bit of a grudge match due to Naz's mouth too.

Pep vs Saddler their wasn't bad blood at first but Pep hated Saddler for his dirty tactics and their 4th fight ended up being full of fouls and very poor. Pep hated Saddler because he struggled against him and Saddler hated Pep because although he was 2-1 up in the series going into the last fight Pep was widely regarded as the best featherweight of his time.

Any fight with Mayorga in.

Ayup Windy, nice article. One which springs to mind is Mickey Walker versus Harry Greb. As you know, those who saw it maintain that it was ferocious battle, but on top of that there was apparently some bad blood between them, and the fight was resumed when the pair of them met later that very same night outside a speakeasy, legend has it.

It's an unfortunate one to mention, but Griffith-Paret would have to be considered, as would Barrera-Morales and, while his 'rivalry' with Jeffries is the more recognized one, Jack Johnson and Tommy Burns were hardly the best of friends after Burns commented in the lead up to their fight that "All co*ns are yellow."

De La Hoya - Vargas

They publicly could not stand each other. Vargas kept mouthing off about what he was going to do etc and was eventually subjected to a bit of a beating from Oscar. Never gave up though.

Mayweather - Corrales didn't have a particularly pleasant build-up either. Something to do with Floyd dishing out hurt due to Corrales' alleged beating of a woman. Who knew...

Something tells me that Wlad - Haye may have a bit of needle in the build-up too...

De La Hoya-Vargas was tasty; a really good fight and a forgotten modern great.

I read and was told that Zale and graziano weren't exactly on great terms with eachother...

Paret-Griffiths
Starling-Honey
Pazienza-Haugen....at first.
Camacho-Mancini
Leila Ali-Christy Martin......Some that spring to mind..

I remember Starling /Honeyghan....Honey fought like an idiiot, thinking he could bomb Marlon out. And he told the press this was how he would fight him too...! Once bitten twice shy for MS, who handed him his a55 on a plate.Sweet revenge for al lthe trash talk...Honey a favourite fighter of mine but was like a precursor to the badboy image some fighters think they have to act like(David Haye).
For best fight, Eubank v Benn, no contest...

Barrera and Morales makes DeGale/Groves look like a nice afternoon at a tea garden!

Hilario Zapata and Fidel Bassa had two fights for the WBA Flyweight title and two riots after each fight..Apparently they weren't bosom buddies!!