The Twitter feud between WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders and former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux escalated during a conference call with reporters Monday. They collide December 16 on HBO in Montreal.

David Lemieux: I’m really excited for this fight. I’m more excited, actually, just to lay my hands on Billy Joe Saunders more than anything else. He’s got a big mouth…I’m going to make him pay in the ring. All this animosity is going to come out in the ring. If he thinks he can run away for 12 rounds, he’s in a lot of trouble…he said a whole bunch of things. Just his character, he is who he is, and I don’t like him.

Billy Joe Saunders: [On Lemieux’s impressive KO ratio] Against bums, yeah, knocking out old men, but he got stuck against Rubio. He’s a tough man with power. He lost his next and then fought bums all the way up until Golovkin. Curtis Stevens, he’s not an A-level fighter. He’s just a step up, a bit of a seasonal fighter. He’s really nothing special. He dealt with him, fair play. But he got spanked by Golovkin previous to that. When you mix him up against the very, very best of the league, he’s not quite comfortable. He didn’t win a round against Golovkin.