Bill Belichick and Eric Mangini, Dwight Howard and Charles Barkley Among Top 10 Sports Figures We Want to See Fight (Photos)

by Timothy Killian on Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 1:01PM

Deep down, everybody wants to just take a swing at their rival.

After Drake and Chris Brown got into a scuffle over former girlfriend Rihanna in a night club brawl on June 14, one boxing promoter offered to let the two gentleman handle it the professional way: in a ring.

It wouldn’t be the first time an ill-fated fistfight sparked the sports world. But forget about celebrities — if the players governed by the rules of the game on the court or field were given the chance, who would end up taking swings at each other?

The world of professional sports includes some of the biggest, toughest and most intense people on the planet. When they get emotional, that’s when things get really interesting.

Beyond the great rivalries of the sport, when feuds spill out on the playing surface (hello, Jason Varitek versus Alex Rodriguez), plenty of athletes and coaches just flat out don’t like each other.

New England Patriots fans know all too well about coach Bill Belichick‘s despising of Eric Mangini for leaving the team against his wishes and then exposing “Spygate.” Knicks fans share Spike Lee‘s loathing of Reggie Miller. We’d like to see these sports figures step outside the lines and settle their differences the old-fashioned way.

Click here to see the top 10 athletes and coaches we want to see fight >>