Pep: One of the all-time great featherweights

And sports fans rejoiced in the prestigious achievements of their 'boy next-door' heroes, Johnny Unitas (football) and Mickey Mantle (baseball).

In New York City boxing rings, however, things were very different.

Willie Pep and Sandy Saddler had started up their rivalry in 1948 and, by the early fifties, were literally knocking lumps out of each other.

There was nothing innocent about their four featherweight bouts.

Pep was an artist.

His defensive guile earned him the nickname, 'Will 'O the Wisp' and, legend has it, once won him a round without even throwing a punch.

He came into their first fight a prohibitive favourite, boasting a record of 135 wins, one draw and one defeat with an unbeaten streak of five years.

Saddler: Pure puncher

The lean-and-mean Saddler, meanwhile, was a pure puncher.

A veteran of 93 fights himself, he was considered by many to be boxing's best kept secret before the 1948 encounter.

And so it proved.

Saddler drove forward at the opening bell in Madison Square Garden and floored a surprised Pep twice in the third en route to a fourth-round stoppage.

Pep, who admitted that he was not mentally ready for such power, prepared hard for the following year's rematch.

And, at the same New York venue, produced one of his best efforts, outboxing his opponent to notch a unanimous decision.

Saddler, who rallied strongly in the latter rounds of that contest, did not expect to get a chance of revenge.

I thought a punch to the kidney did it - but if they say I twisted his arm, okay, I twisted it

Sandy Saddler

The birth of McDonalds

With tempers already stretched to breaking, it was perhaps unwise to lock the two men in combat again.

But, on 26 September, 1951 they met for a final, fateful time.

On this occasion, against the genteel backdrop of New York City's Polo Grounds, the bout degenerated quickly.

Gouging, lacing, heeling and butting their way through the early rounds, the fighters even conspired to haul the referee to the canvas during a wrestling exchange in round seven.

In the end, Saddler won by a technical knockout, a result that was overshadowed by the lengthy bans handed out to both boxers.

Ignominious end

But this ignominious end should not detract from an intriguing and explosive rivalry.

And should certainly not muddy the career's of two boxing legends.

Saddler - the puncher - retired in 1957 with 103 knockouts to his name, more than any other featherweight.

Pep - the artist - fought until 1959, recording a remarkable 229 wins in 241 contests and fully justifying the description of one boxing writer, who labelled him "the tap dancer with gloves on."