Source:Best of World Boxing– Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier.
“Profile on the greatest rivalry in Boxing.”
From Best of World Boxing
I realize football is very different from boxing, but the great NFL analyst John Madden once had a great quote about rivalries and what you need for a rivalry to even be a rivalry, let alone a great rivalry. And he was talking about the great rivalry between his Oakland Raiders and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s, the two best franchises in American Football Conference, if not the entire NFL in the 1970s.
What Coach Madden said for a rivalry to be great (and I’m paraphrasing) the two teams involved have to be good at the same time once the rivalry starts and then have to be good after that. Their games have to matter, to be important, to be well-played, and close.
What made the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier rivalry a great rivalry in the 1970s, was not only did they hate each other (even though secretly they respected each other) but they were not just good, or real good, or even great, but they were the two best heavyweight fighters in boxing in the 1970s. That’s why they had those three great fights against each other from 1971-75.
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