What was it? and I don't mean where the fighters eventually made up after a fight or years down the line. What the rivalries where 2 guys had genuine hatred for one another and weren't doing it to build hype?
Ali Frazier Morales Barrera Frazier disliked Ali for years after their final fight and Morales also has the '**** him' attitude towards Barrera even now.
ali-frazier was the most bitter, hate fueled rivalry ever, no question. the fact it continued for rest of their lives speaks volumes.
Ali was viewed as a revolutionary for the Blacks at the time who was looking about to make change, he saw Frazier as cut from the old cloth of Joe Louis era which he looked down upon because he viewed them as subservient to the Whites of America therefore calling him an 'Uncle Tom'. Louis also got ****ed over financially in his latter years by the IRS. They were always going to collide with Ali's trash talk and also the fact that Smokin' Joe was never going to back down from a fight (even for Ali). Frazier was a old-school classy 'what you see is what you get' guy vs Muhammad Ali 'Modern Athlete' trash talking persona Sports Superstar.
When Ali was banned from boxing and broke Fraizer was there to help him get back on his feet, gave him a place to live, cash, clothes and petitioned to get him back into the sport. More than anyone else had done for him. Anyway, later on Ali showed him no respect. Was racist labeling him a uncle tom, threw insults about his family, Derided him on national TV and being much more popular people and the media turned on fraizer, making him have to go through lots of public humiliation. (and the insults Ali threw where personal, not just your a weak fighter kind of bull****) Obviously for someone who had gone out of their way to help Ali, he wasnt happy about that. Resulted in 3 of the best havyweight fights of all time though
I thought of that myself but I think this was more on Basillio`s part, I don`t think Robinson had the same feeling of hate towards Basillio. Basillio still called Robinson names years after Ray was dead, pretty ****ed up.