As previously reported on BoxingScene.com, things got very tense at the open workouts for Billy Joe Saunders' upcoming world title defense against challenger Willie Monroe.

During a war of words between both camps, Saunders called Monroe a "queer" - which raised some eyebrows among the press members attending the workouts at London's Peacock Gym. Saunders has been in hot water in the past for making what some deemed homophobic comments on social media.

This coming Saturday night, Saunders defends his WBO middleweight title against Monroe at London's Copper Box Arena.

Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs), now trained by Dominic Ingle, has very little respect for the skill set of Monroe and believes that he will give him a proper trashing on Saturday.

"All you are is a load of bums coming over here and you're going to get dealt with," Saunders shouted. "If you'd like to tune in on Saturday night, you will see this queer get beat, you will see him get stopped, you will see him get knocked out (and) knocked out bad."

Saunders also got in a confrontation with Monroe trainer, T.J. Nolan. He took a hat from Nolan and shoved them down his trousers.

Saunders told Nolan - "Next time bring your mum here as well... and we'll f*** her like a b****"

Monroe on the other hand believes Saunders is talking a lot of trash as the days count down, because he's in fear of their scheduled fight.

"What's the classic defence against fear? Noise, right? What did he come in here doing? Making a lot of motherf***ing noise," Monroe said.

If Saunders wins, he stands in line to get a world title unification crack at the winner's Saturday's mega-bout between WBC, IBO, WBA, IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, which takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.