KEY POINTS:
Rugby league superstars Sonny Bill Williams and Willie Mason tonight begin what could be a bitter and long-lasting feud when they clash in Sydney.
Former Bulldogs teammate and Kiwi Sonny Bill fired the first shot when he said he had lost respect for Mason when he convinced Williams
to remain loyal to the Bulldogs when he was off contract - only to walk out on the club less than 12 months later.
Mason has downplayed talks of a grudge match but with so many ex-Bulldogs playing for the Roosters it is one of the most anticipated NRL games in years.
Williams and Mason's impeding rivalry has the potential to reach the level of some of the great individual clashes over the years. Read below and click on the link below the image to view a photo gallery of sports greatest feuds.
Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier
These two boxing heavyweight greats fought out three epic battles but their feud went well beyond the ring. Frazier never forgave Ali for the verbal abuse he dished out prior to their fights, such as calling him an 'Uncle Tom' and 'too ugly to be champ', even when Ali developed Parkinson's disease.
Tonya Harding v Nancy Kerrigan
Nancy Kerrigan was the golden girl of American ice-skating only to be attacked by an assailant with a lead pipe in the lead-up to the 1994 Winter Olympics. Fellow US ice-skater Tonya Harding's husband, and three others, were arrested for the assault. Harding's husband claimed his wife knew of the attack, an accusation she denied.
Ian Chappell v Ian Botham
Traded blows in a Melbourne bar in 1977 and carried on with verbal jibes throughout their careers. "He was a good cricketer, nothing special," Chappell said of Botham. "As a human being he is a nonentity," Botham responded. Chappell even claimed that Botham had threatened to cut him from ear-to-ear. Botham denied it.
Shaquille O'Neal v Kobe Bryant
Shaq and Kobe led the LA Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships but in the end the Lakers stage just wasn't big enough for these basketball superstars. O'Neal was traded to Miami, and then to Phoenix, where they continue their rivalry on opposite teams.
Norm Hewitt v Richard Cockerill
Hewitt and Cockerill's feud began in 1997 when they went eyeball-to-eyeball during the Haka in a test match between England and New Zealand. The hookers took their feud to the next level in Dunedin the following year when they were involved in a late-night scrap, which left Cockerill with a black eye.
Harbahjan Singh v Andrew Symonds and Matthew Hayden
These three were at the centre of a heated summer of cricket between Australia and India just a few months ago, which will no doubt carry on when Australia visit India next year. To cut a long story short, Symonds said something to tick Harbahjan off, Harbahjan responded by allegedly calling Symonds a monkey and Hayden chimed in by calling Harbahjan an obnoxious little weed.
Sir Alex Ferguson v Arsene Wenger
The greatest rivalry in the history of the English Premier League between the current managers of the competition's most successful teams - Manchester United and Arsenal. Their feud began in 1997 and they've been going at it ever since, trading barbs in the British press and constantly trying to get over one another with 'mind games'.
Fernando Alonso v Lewis Hamilton
The latest in a long list of Formula One feuds. Alonso joined McLaren from Renault after winning the drivers' championship in consecutive years only to be overshadowed on the track by rookie Hamilton. Alonso claimed McLaren favoured Hamilton over him so he packed his bags at the end of the season and went back to Renault.
- NZ HERALD STAFF