THE recipe for a boxing rivalry never features the same ingredients, but it usually carries the same unmistakable flavour.
Animosity. Intensity. Disdain. Sometimes even genuine hatred. Often it takes more than one fight – rounds shared, pain traded – before a simple grudge grows into a volcanic eruption when two men collide.
As far back as 1908, when middleweights Stanley Ketchel and Billy Papke tore through a bloody four-fight series in just 13 months, rivalries have quickened boxing’s pulse and gripped audiences across the world.
On the 50th anniversary of The Thriller in Manila, Boxing News looks back at some of the greatest rivalries ever fought before our eyes.
Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier
Score: 2-1 Ali
From The Fight of the Century to The Thriller in Manila, their trilogy stopped the world. It ended in 14 rounds of savage brutality under the 50-degree heat of the Philippines. Ali and Frazier were made for one another, and boxing has never seen their like again. Half a century on, their rivalry still stands as the gold standard.
Sugar Ray Leonard vs Roberto Duran
Score: 2-1 Leonard
During the fabled Four Kings era, Leonard, Duran, Marvin Hagler, and Thomas Hearns battled to prove supremacy. Leonard and Duran set the tone. Their electrifying clash in Montreal was followed by the infamous New Orleans rematch, where Durán quit in the eighth round. Nine years later in Las Vegas, Leonard won a one-sided decision, leaving Duran heavily criticised.
Marco Antonio Barrera vs Erik Morales
Score: 2-1 Barrera
Barrera revived his reputation in a close 2000 loss to the feared Morales. The build-up to their rematch was dripping with insults and back-handed compliments, and Barrera edged a disputed decision. Barrera triumphed again in the rubber match. Their third fight was as fierce as the first – its final round fought like it was the opening bell.
Manny Pacquiao vs Juan Manuel Marquez
Score: 2-1 Pacquiao, 1 draw
“You may have won the battles, but I won the war.” Marquez could well have thought that after his chilling 2012 knockout of Pacquiao – his only official victory in their four-fight saga. Spanning weights from 125lbs to 143lbs, their rivalry echoed Barrera-Morales. The dislike wasn’t as overt, but it simmered throughout, exploding in unforgettable drama.
Sugar Ray Robinson vs Jake LaMotta
Score: 5-1 Robinson
Robinson regularly gave away weight to LaMotta, yet his blinding speed and skill told. Nearly 19,000 watched LaMotta, with a 16-pound advantage, break Robinson’s unbeaten streak in their rematch. But though the “Bronx Bull” kept marching forward in their next four fights, Robinson’s class always proved decisive.
Riddick Bowe vs Evander Holyfield
Score: 2-1 Bowe
If you’ve never seen a man fall from the sky into a boxing ring, Bowe-Holyfield II is the place to start. Despite a 20-minute delay while officials removed a rogue paraglider, the pair went straight back to war. Their first fight was Bowe at his peak, leaving Holyfield admitting, “I think I’m finished.” He wasn’t – he levelled the score in the rematch. Bowe closed the trilogy with a knockout, the first time Holyfield had ever been stopped. By then, “The Real Deal” had given everything he had.
