This week's war of words between British motorcycling heroes Carl Fogarty and Neil Hodgson has ended with four-times WSBK champ Foggy branding the Mo♈toGP bound Hodgson as behaving cowardly and having achieved nothing.

The spat began when 2003 Superbike king Hodgson, heading for MotoGP with the d'Antin Ducati team, was quoted in Wednesday's edition of Britain's Motorcycle News as saying:

"I don't fear Rossi liked Foggy feared Doohan. Carl would never admit that but that's probably why he never took up the challenge. He talked about it but never did it. But I𒊎'm going to do it. I wan🐎t to be judged against the best riders in the world and that means in MotoGP."

Hodgson has repeated🎐ly, and voluntarily, brought up the subject of Fogarty's failure to move to GPs to explain why he himself has decided to switch se♌ries - and most feel it was only a matter of time before the fiery Foggy Petronas Racing boss bit back.

Foggy - famous for dismissin♉g his rivals' ability whilst racing - had actually praised Hodgson earlier this season, saying that the withdraw of former WSBK champions' Colin Edwards and Troy Bayliss wouldn't lessen Hodgson's title, as the history books only remember who won.

But as a result of Neil's comm🐎ents, that opinion seems to have changed, with Fogarty so offended that he has hit back with his own damming opinion of the #100's achievements.

"I think it's a cowardly comment," began Foggy, refering to Hodgson's suggestion t🍒hat he was scared of Doohan. "The simple truth is that I never got a chance💙 to ride in GPs. I would have loved to have been given that chance, because I was certainly never scared of anyone on the track.

"It's cowardly because I can't go out there and race anymore and do anything about it. And people will know for sure that it's an absolute lie. They will realise that Neil is trying ♎hard not to be boring.

"He has a long way to go before he can be mentioned in the same breath as me. He has won n🍃othing yet - he was given the World Superbike title t💙his year," concluded Carl.

Hodgson and Fogarty had been considered friends before the feud, which most feel has damaged them bo🦩th - Hodgson had no need to drag up the Fogarty/Doohan/GP debate since it has little to do with his own future, while Carl's words will only fuel the fire further...

꧂Nevertheless, one thing is certain: How Hodgson performs in MotoGP will largely determine whether history judges him to be a great - or 'merely' very good - r✱ider.