It all started with the male chauvanist Bobby Riggs. “I’ll play her on clay, grass, wood, cement, marble or roller skates,” Riggs said. “We got to keep this sex thing going. I’m a woman specialist now.” (Greenspan) King responded with calling him a "creep." This also wasnt the first time that Riggs had said these things about women. It's just this time he actully said it to play King, and it worked, she agreed to play Riggs in matches that would lead to debate.

This contest of Riggs and King had prize money involved for whoever won, 100,000 was at stake. When King spent her whole summer on a tennis tour with the WTA (Womens Tennis Association) , Riggs was out partying and never practicing before the match. Finally on Spetember 20th 1973 over 30,000 fans crowded into the Houston Astrodome. It was reported that over 90,000 million were watching online. When Billie Jean came out onto the court she ws carried on a platfrom with men carrying her. When Bobby arrived on the court he was wearing a sugar daddy jacket along with a sign that also said sugar daddy. At the time of the match Rigs was 55 and King was 29. Some people thought that King could have an advantage over Riggs just because she was younger. Riggs obviously didnt think that he had a disadavantage at the time before the match had begun. 

King and Riggs coming out onto the court. (National)

The two had played the first set and King had won 6-4 securing set point on Riggs double fault. The second match Riggs tried to break Kings serves, yet he still didnt win, King with the result of the set, 6-3. The last match was played and ended at 6-3 King, as well. This took a little over 2 hours to play. King had flung her racket into the air as celebration. The crowd went wild and King had finally won over Riggs. Riggs was 55. "He was as old as my father at the time. For me to beat him meant absollutely nothing athletically. Nothing. But it's what it represented. You never underestimate your opponent, " Billie had said (Wysk)

After King had won a debate had gone around and is still going on for years. Was the match rigged by Riggs? Did King only win because she was younger? Of course Riggs was the only one that could answer these questions because he was older and there were accusations that he had tried to rigg the match. 

Over the years, rumours circulated that Riggs—who was said to have had a large gambling debt to the Mafia and who had just months before the Battle easily dispatched a female player as talented as King—threw the match in order to erase his debt to the mob. A 2013 investigative report by ESPN revealed that there was a witness to a purported meeting of Mafia figures planning to rig the match and there is circumstantal evidence to support the fix theory, but tennis experts remain split as to whether or not the Battle was thrown by Riggs or if he was simply bested by a better and younger player. While it is unlikely that it will ever be clear if the Battle was fixed, what is known is that it brought theretofore unprecedented publicity to the women’s movement and was—symbolically, if nothing else—a landmark moment in the ongoing struggle for full equality among the sexes. (Augustyn)