The backstories and controversies that have ignited feuds involving athletes
The greatest feuds in sporting history
At the very core of sports at just about every level is competition and rivalry.
Barcelona and Real Madrid, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali - the list goes on.
But they're by no means all of them. Wide World of Sports will take you on a deep dive into some of the other great sports feuds.
Kane Cornes unleashes on Nick Kyrgios
Kane Cornes has become the latest former athlete to take a swipe at Nick Kyrgios, labelling him "the greatest waste of talent we've ever seen".
Speaking on SEN radio, Cornes was talking about how US sports talk shows often discuss legacies the most popular sports stars leave on their games.
"What legacy are you leaving behind? What's the conversation gonna be in 10 years' time about you? What's Kyrgios' legacy gonna be?" Cornes posed.
"Is he the immature brat who never grew up? The guy that's always looking for an easy way out. When things get tough, he quits?
"OnlyFans – yeah, great payday, well done. You're a brand ambassador for OnlyFans.
"But he's probably the greatest waste of talent that we've ever seen."
But Cornes wasn't finished.
"He's not coming back now. He's not playing at the (2024) Australian Open. He doesn't have a ranking," he said.
"I just think it is one of the great wastes because he hasn't been prepared to dig in and do the hard work and fight like others before him.
"His legacy in 10 years' time is going to be non-existent.
"He said when he joined OnlyFans you get to see him game, you get to see his tattoos, his intimate side, it's all on the table. 'I'll be bringing fans along for the ride.'
"You know what fans want to come along for the ride, Nick? They wanna see you win and they wanna see you win big tennis matches in front of big crowds in Melbourne, not what tattoo you've got or what PlayStation game you're playing on OnlyFans.
"How embarrassing."
Mitchell Johnson vs David Warner
The 2023/2024 Australian summer of cricket hadn't even started when former Test quick Mitchell Johnson took a swipe at David Warner seemingly out of the blue.
Warner had made it clear he intended the three-Test series against Pakistan to be his last.
But in a column for the West Australian, Johnson suggested Warner's form was undeserving of a swansong.
Johnson argued Warner's career should have ended either by selectors dropping him, or that he should've retired earlier and taken the decision out of the selectors' hands.
"Does this really warrant a swansong, a last hurrah against Pakistan that was forecast a year in advance as if he was bigger than the game and the Australian cricket team?" he wrote, adding he felt Warner had never owned up to his role in the ball-tampering saga.
"Now the way he is going out is underpinned by more of the same arrogance and disrespect to our country."
Reaction to Johnson's column was swift and from all corners – former coach Justin Langer described him as "stubborn" and that he'd "broken an unwritten rule", while Cricket Australia also dropped him from several speaking engagements.
Warner responded in emphatic fashion, scoring 164 in the first innings of the Pakistan series.
He even made a shushing motion to the crowd as he celebrated, although he would later insist it wasn't aimed at anyone in particular.
Johnson even doubled down after that ton, writing Warner "did what he was paid to do".
Novak Djokovic v Rafael Nadal
While the Big Three of men's tennis – Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer – all have an immense respect for each other, there is no doubt the bonds shared by the three are incredibly different.
While Nadal and Federer are close friends, there has always been a simmering tension between the Spaniard and the Serb.
In December, Djokovic recalled a time the pair shared a Roland-Garros locker room, and the intensity of Nadal's warm-up – which he said included blaring loud music – "pissed me off".
Nadal told Spanish publication El Pais this week that it was "never, never, never my intention" to intimidate Djokovic, before knocking Djokovic down amid the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) debate.
"Since I have a memory of tennis, [Roger Federer] is the player who has impressed me the most, the one who has entertained me the most, the one who has moved me the most," said Nadal, whose prickly relationship with Djokovic is contrasted by his deeply special bond with Federer.
"Watching Federer play has moved me more than Djokovic, and in the end, tennis is about emotion. It's the emotion that draws you to it."
Ange Postecoglou fires up
It was New Years Eve, and big Ange's Spurs – which had to that point endured a horror run with injuries in the 2023-2024 Premier League season – were hosting Bournemouth.
Up 3-1 in injury time, Spurs substitute Alejo Veliz suffered a suspected knee injury, and was repeatedly told by Postecoglou to stay down to receive treatment.
The Aussie then engaged in a heated verbal exchange with Bournemouth's first-team coach Shaun Cooper, and eventually had to be restrained and pushed away from the scuffle.
As the fracas died down, the referee gave a yellow card to Postecoglou, Cooper, and also Spurs midfielder Giovani Lo Celso.
Post-game, Postecoglou joked he and Cooper "were just wishing each other happy new year".
Mickelson takes aim at LIV critic
LIV's most outspoken star Phil Mickelson and the breakaway league's vocal critic Brandel Chamblee are, obviously, not on good terms.
Chamblee, an analyst working for Golf Channel, has never taken a backward step in criticising the Saudi-backed organisation and the professional players who have signed lucrative contracts.
"As I have said many times, LIV Golf is not so much a sports entity as it is MBS / Saudi Arabia trying to hide their atrocities and launder its reputation by buying sports stars. Any yielding to or agreement with them is a deal with a murderous dictator," Chamblee tweeted in his most recent take on LIV.
Mickelson took the opportunity to hit back as he tweet quoted a golf podcast that claimed, "Brandel Chamblee is a nasty bully, and worse".
"Unfortunately, I can't take credit for this quote," Mickelson wrote with laughing emojis.
"His obsession with LIV (and me) borders on the psychotic, at least I never had to work with him. Wow."
'Cheating' claim sparks frosty handshake
Greek star and world No.7 Maria Sakkari was embroiled in a "cheating" controversy after defeating Karolina Pliskova during their last 16 clash at Indian Wells.
During the eighth game of the third set, Pliskova said Sakkari's racquet touched the ball at the net as a forehand sailed long.
But the chair umpire did not see it, and Sakkari denied the ball ever touched her racquet and was awarded the point. Pliskova won that game, but it was the Greek player who prevailed in the end, winning 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in two hours and 45 minutes.
As both players came to the net to shake, Pliskova was clearly upset and chose not to look at Sakkari as she delivered one of the coldest handshakes of all time.
Tennis reporter Jose Morgado wrote on Twitter: "Sakkari survives, 2h45, into the QFs in Indian Wells. No look handshake from Pliskova, who thinks Maria cheated later in the 3rd. Kaja says Sakkari touched a ball at the net, umpire didn't see, Maria denies it."
Sakkari did not address the incident in her post match press conference.
Kyrgios throws jab in tennis spat
Stan Wawrinka's heated net exchange with Holger Rune following the three-time Grand Slam champion's upset victory at Indian Wells has been the talk of the tennis world.
Wawrinka defeated the 19-year-old seventh seed and had a frosty exchange at the net after Rune won their previous meeting in November.
Wawrinka imparted some words of wisdom on Rune at the net following a loss in that meeting.
"My advice to you is that you stop acting like a baby on the court, OK?" Wawrinka was overhead saying by on-court microphones.
So when Wawrinka won this clash with Rune, the latter asked, after shaking hands at the net.
"You've got nothing to say now?" Rune was overheard saying.
Wawrinka was taken aback before responding: "What do you want me to say?"
The two continued to exchange words before they each went their own way.
Kyrgios joined the conversation on social media on Tuesday night, taking a swipe at Wawrinka.
"Hahahahaha yeah all good when you win... typical," Kyrgios wrote on his Instagram stories while sharing a Tennis TV clip of the net exchange.
"@holgerrune with you my brother."
Kyrgios and Wawrinka have history, with the Aussie infamously making comments about his then girlfriend Donna Vekic during a match in 2015.
Super Bowl star turns Valentine's Day troll
It was the most controversial call of Super Bowl LVII and Chiefs wide-receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster couldn't help himself just days after the big game.
The defensive holding call by Philadelphia's James Bradbury on Smith-Schuster allowed the Chiefs to run the clock down to eight seconds and kick a game-winning field goal.
Bradberry took responsibility for the penalty after the match but Smith-Schuster wasn't about to let him off the hook.
He tweeted at Bradberry on Valentine's Day, with a card that read: "I'll hold you when it matters most" above a picture of the Eagles cornerback.
"Happy Valentine's Day, everybody," Smith-Schuster wrote with a heart emoji.
Bradbury's teammate, Eagles star A.J. Brown hit back at Smith-Schuster on Twitter.
"First off congratulations. Y'all deserve it. This is lame. You was on the way out the league before Mahomes resurrected your career on your 1 year deal Tik-Tok boy. He admitted that he grabbed you but don't act like your like that or ever was. But congratulations again!"
The Chiefs and Eagles are set to face each other in Kansas City next season. Both Smith-Schuster and Bradberry are pending free agents.
Bitter AFL feud reignites with text
The long-running feud between former Port Adelaide 300-gamer Kane Cornes and ex-Adelaide captain Taylor Walker was reignited with one foul-mouthed text message, according to the former.
The bitter back-and-forth began around the 2017 grand final when Walker took exception to public comments by Cornes, and it has barely let up since.
It reached a tipping point in 2019 when Cornes revealed he had received numerous prank calls, and claimed they came from Walker and his friends.
"If you've got Taylor Walker and his mates prank calling me on New Year's Eve, that is how far I am in this guy's head, to the point where he is mentally fragile.," Cornes told Nine at the time.
Now it is alleged Walker has reignited the beef with a text sent to Cornes, which was received while the latter was sitting in his car with his children.
"My phone beeped, it was sitting in the car holder. We looked at it and it read: 'You are a weak c---'," Cornes said on SEN radio.
"I thought, I'm going to call it - and the boys thought it was hilarious, so I did."
Cornes claims he reached Walker's message bank, and upon further investigation confirmed to himself that it was Walker's phone who sent the text.
