Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-50.72.49.241-20130930130812/@comment-25074378-20150131215742

As Roggvir states before he is executed, Ulfric challenged Torygg to honorable combat. Torygg would not have accepted the challenge if he didn't respect Ulfric. Just because you have a different opinion than someone else, does not mean you can't respect them. Although I have no real proof of it, it's possible that Torygg wanted to step down as king. Some people in Skyrim expressed their opinion that Torygg "wasn't even that good of a king" (quoted from the owner of Bits and Peices in Solitude) so maybe he saw himself losing the popular opinion and asked Ulfric to challenge him and take over, before the Thalmor decided to replace Torygg themselves with someone more loyal to the Aldmeri Dominion (Torygg obviously disagreed with the White Gold Concordant since he was secretly still a Talos worshipper). Of course, the plan didn't go as planned and a civil war began.

Well, whatever the reason, there is at least respect between the two, and had the Dominion not pushed itself into Skyrim, they might have even been good friends.