What are the 10 best individual rivalries in sports history?

Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes will battle again in the postseason when the Kansas City Chiefs host the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday. The matchup will be the fourth in the playoffs between the two teams, making it the NFL’s top quarterback rivalry since the turn of the decade.

The previous three battles have mostly been filled with excitement, as both signal-callers played near-perfect games in the 2021 AFC divisional-round title. However, Mahomes’ miraculous 13-second drive to force overtime and ensuing game-winning touchdown pass on the opening possession of the extra period gave him an edge over Allen. 

Mahomes got the next laugh over Allen in the postseason as well, with the Chiefs defeating the Bills in the 2023 playoffs. Entering Sunday, Mahomes is undefeated (3-0) all-time against Allen in the postseason, but Allen has the upper hand in the regular season, going 4-1 in those games. The most recent of those wins came in November 2024, with Allen helping the Bills defeat the Chiefs in their only loss that Mahomes started during the regular season. 

The Allen-Mahomes rivalry is certainly exciting, but it’s far from the only individual rivalry that’s brought juice in the NFL world over the years. 

That said, let’s take a look at the best individual rivalries in sports history.

The NBA icons became unlikely rivals in the mid-2010s, with Curry leading the Golden State Warriors to prominence, while James gave his teams an NBA Finals floor from 2011-18. That set up a run of four consecutive years of James and Curry meeting in the NBA Finals.

Curry got the first punch in that set, helping the Warriors take down an injured Cleveland Cavaliers team in 2015. James ultimately got the biggest rivalry punch a year later. After Curry led the Warriors to a record 73-win season to unanimously win MVP, James did something that had never been done in NBA history. He led the Cavs back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series, putting on remarkable performances in the final three games en route to winning Finals MVP.

The individual rivalry might have lost some of its luster when the Warriors signed Kevin Durant in 2016, but the stars still delivered, with James putting up some memorable performances in both Finals losses to the Warriors.

James and Curry notably became closer as the rivalry continued, and the duo have actually sparked rumors of possibly teaming up in the future. They got the chance to do that in the 2024 Summer Olympics, leading Team USA to a gold medal in possibly one of their final iconic basketball moments. 

Taken with the first overall pick in consecutive drafts (2004-05), Ovechkin and Crosby quickly became the faces of the NHL. And with their teams being in the same division, they were set up for some epic battles over the years. 

The duo have gone head-to-head in the postseason four times over their respective careers. They each scored a hat trick in the same game in their first postseason head-to-head series in 2009. Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins dominated Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals to win Game 7 of the 2009 conference semis that year.

That win set the stage for the initial narratives surrounding the rivalry. Ovechkin typically won more individual accolades between the two, while Crosby led his team to more success, winning the Stanley Cup in 2009.

Their next postseason battles also preceded championship years for the team that won the series. The Penguins got the better hand of the Capitals in the second in both the 2016 and 2017 seasons en route to winning the Stanley Cup.

Finally, in 2018, Ovechkin got over the hump, making a pair of big plays to help bury the Penguins in Game 6 of their second-round matchup that season before winning his first Stanley Cup. 

8. Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova 

Arguably two of the best tennis players of all time, Evert and Navratilova met 80 times over their respective careers. They nearly split the all-time series, with Navratilova holding a 43–37 edge. Navratilova won 14 of the 22 grand slam matches between the two. 

The elder Evert had the edge in the rivalry at first, winning the first three grand slam matches between the two, but Navratilova won nine of the next 11 grand slam matches, with eight of those wins being a championship match. 

Evert was able to win just her third grand slam title at the 1985 French Open in a match widely considered as one of the best women’s tennis matches of all time. Both players bounced back from deficits before Evert won the deciding set, 7-5, in one of the last grand slam matches between the two.

7. Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning

Before there was Allen-Mahomes, there was Brady-Manning. The duo actually began their careers as division rivals, with the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts playing in the AFC East through 2001. As the two had polar opposite paths to NFL success, Brady won his first career start against Manning in 2001.

Not long after, the two became the best at their position. Manning won co-MVP in 2003, but he wasn’t able to play a clean game in the Colts’ loss to the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. A year later, Brady and the Patriots took down Manning & Co. in the divisional round after his record-setting season en route to their third Super Bowl win.

As Brady enjoyed team success early on, Manning won everything but a Super Bowl throughout the first seven years of his career. In 2006, Manning was able to change that, leading the Colts back from a 21-3 deficit to take down Brady’s Patriots in the conference title game en route to winning his first Super Bowl.

Brady began to match Manning’s individual achievements after the game, as the duo had some more epic regular-season games. The rivalry continued when Manning joined the Denver Broncos in 2012, with the star quarterbacks meeting twice in the postseason. Denver won both of those games, including the 2015 AFC Championship Game, to get the last laugh over Brady as he won the Super Bowl in his final NFL game two weeks later.

6. Wayne Gretzky vs. Mario Lemieux

Gretzky and Lemieux never met in the postseason, but they defined the NHL in the late 1980s through much of the 1990s. Many regard Gretzky as the best player in NHL history, setting some marks and records that have become unobtainable.

However, Lemieux was able to go toe-to-toe with Gretzky in the prime of their careers. He led the NHL in scoring four times between 1987-93, edging out Gretzky by a few points in some of those years. He also led the Penguins to two Stanley Cup titles over that time.

Gretzky still has the majority of the most noteworthy scoring records in NHL history, but Lemieux was able to finish slightly behind him in points per game (1.921 to 1.883) and a consecutive streak for games with a point (51 to 46).

Federer and Nadal met 40 times over their respective careers, with Nadal winning 24 of the matches and 10 of their 14 matches in grand slam tournaments.

While Nadal got the best of Federer, that was always the case in the rivalry. Nadal won the French Open final over Federer twice, in 2006 and 2007, while Federer defeated Nadal in the Wimbledon final those years. 

In 2008, Nadal held serve on his dominant surface, beating Federer on clay to win the French Open final over him again. However, he was able to defeat Federer on his dominant surface later that year, defeating him on grass to win the Wimbledon final in a match that’s widely considered the best in tennis history. Nadal needed extra games in the fifth set and nearly five hours to beat Federer to win his first Wimbledon title.

The two soccer icons have been the faces of the sport since nearly the start of the century. In fact, either Messi or Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or every year from 2008 to 2017. Furthermore, those two made up the Ballon d’Or winner in all but two years between 2008 and 2023.

While there hasn’t been a major international match between the two, Messi and Ronaldo’s peaks aligned when the former was at Barcelona and the latter was at Real Madrid. Over their 37 career matches against each other, they’ve each scored 23 goals, but Messi’s teams went 17-11-9 over span, which included the 2008 Champions League final. 

Messi also helped Argentina win the World Cup in 2022, giving him the edge over Ronaldo in international accomplishments. But Ronaldo’s 919 career goals are more than Messi’s 850, arguably making him the greatest goalscorer of all time. 

3. Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier

What happens when two of the best boxers of all time meet? Three of the greatest boxing matches in history.

Ali and Frazier were undefeated ahead of their first meeting in 1971, with each staking a claim as the World Heavyweight Champion before going head-to-head in a match billed the “Fight of the Century.” Frazier won that match in 1971 by a unanimous decision, but that just set the stage up for two bouts between the iconic boxers.

In 1974, Ali got his revenge on Frazier. He won the same way that Frazier defeated him three years prior, winning by unanimous decision in a 12-round bout. The duo met again in 1975 in a match billed as the “Thrilla in Manilla,” which Ali won due to Frazier’s corner retirement in Round 14.

2. Bill Russell vs. Wilt Chamberlain

Russell and Chamberlain emerged as basketball’s dominant forces in the 1960s, with each dominating the MVP vote while one of them dominated in the title count. The two accounted for eight of the nine MVPs from 1959 to 1968, signifying that they were the two best players in the game.

But when the postseason arrived, Russell’s teams usually got the best of Chamberlain’s. The Boston Celtics defeated Chamberlain’s squads in the first five times the duo met in the postseason before the Philadelphia 76ers took down the Celtics in 1967 to end their eight-year title streak. 

Russell got the last laugh over Chamberlain, though. Russell helped the Celtics take down the Sixers in 1968, coming back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series and reach the NBA Finals. A year later, Russell’s Celtics outlasted Chamberlain’s Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. In Game 7, Chamberlain departed early as Russell was able to lift Boston to a title in what wound up being his final game.

1. Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson

If there was an individual rivalry that transcended sports, it was Bird-Magic. Seemingly everyone picked a side in the battles between the two sides in the 1980s.

Before they made their mark in the NBA, the two went head-to-head in the 1979 national championship game. Johnson led Michigan State to a title over Bird’s Indiana State squad.

That set the rivalry up for when the two reached the NBA, forming a rivalry that helped re-energize the league. They each won titles early in their careers, but they never met head-to-head in the NBA Finals in 1984. Bird’s Celtics won in seven games that year, with things notably getting heated in their Game 4 win.

A year later, Johnson got his revenge, leading the Lakers to a six-game series win. Johnson also helped the Lakers beat the Celtics in 1987, with his junior sky hook to win Game 4 being a key moment in the rivalry.

The bitter rivals admitted that they disliked each other for years, but they were able to form a bond when they filmed a commercial in between their NBA Finals matchups at Bird’s mother’s home. 

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