Wondering about both sides of this - two opponents who loathed/battled each other in the ring, but afterwards became buddies? Or those who couldn't let it go and move on? Thinking on how Louis and Schmeling went on to become good friends despite the pressure they both had to be brutal to each other in their bouts ... and Leonard/Hagler, who I believe are still not on good speaking terms. Any examples come to mind of when bygones became bygones, and when they didn't?
Holmes & Cooney became buddies i believe http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/04/when_the_fight_ends_a_friendship_endures_di_ionno.html
We had a guy bring some of his boxers to our place to spar a few weeks ago. Afterward we were all sitting around talking and the guy started discussing some of his pro fighters and what he expected of them in the future. He would bring up one and list his good points, then he'd say, "but he's a head case." Then another and the same thing, "he's a head case." Then he realized what he was saying and he said, "now that I think about it, everybody in boxing is a head case, who wants to get hit for a living?" He had about 35 pro fights, and he said, "crazier yet is that all the guys I fought, I cut them, they cut me, we all tried to knock each other out, and now almost all of my best friends are those guys. I'm a head case too!"
Frazier despised Ali till his dying day. Ali, we are told was ready to make amends and understood why Frazier remained bitter towards him but in his condition in the last few decades of his life, who knows what he really felt?
Barbados Joe Walcott and Sam Langford loathed each other, but they reconciled later in life, and became close friends.
Didn't Blackburn and Johnson hate each other. Underneath the surface I think Benn still can't stand Eubanks.
Morales, Barrera and Marquez? They used to hate each other with a passion but aren't they all friendly now?
This content is protected Duran and Leonard had three hard battles in the ring. I can't say if they are close friends, but aparently they have a good relationship nowadays.
Didn't Corbett-Sullivan, and Corbett-Fitzsimmons hate each other until they died? I guess not Kilrain on the other hand became friends with Sullivan I believe, and even carried his coffin at his funeral.
Sullivan and Corbett became friends after their fight, but they fell out over over the Jeffries Johnson fight, because Sullivan vocally picked Johnson, and Corbett attacked him over it. They seem to have later reconciled. Corbett and Fitzsimmons loathed each other, but they seem to have reconciled by the time of the Corbett McCoy fight. Sullivan's funeral took place after a hard frost, and they had to uses dynamite to blast the hole in the ground, before the coffin could be placed. Killrain commented that Sullivan would definitely have approved.
pretty sure basilio stills highly disliked Robinson after they retired even though they both had that strong respect for each other didn't Arturo gatti and ward stay on the same hospital ward next to each other sharing laughs