Oscar Wilde once wrote, in a widely paraphrased comment, that you can judge a man by the quality of his enemies. Victor Conte, the notorious all-time great performance enhancing drug supplier turned self-styled anti-PED reformer, has spent the last several days attacking me on Twitter. On a Wilde-an level, that might make me a great, great man. By the same standard, judging by the efficacy of Conte’s attacks – “lil bitch,” “pimple brother,” a fundamental misunderstanding of how Twitter works – that might make me, a la Tyrion Lannister, a half-man.

Conte is, most famously, the boss of BALCO, which allegedly counted as its customers Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Shane Mosley and Bill Romanowski. He went to prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute steroids and money laundering. He has spent the years since striking up customers in boxing, among them top names like Andre Ward and Nonito Donaire, both since departed from his clientele, but far from the only boxers who became and remained customers. Thus, my interest in Conte as editor of the boxing blog The Queensberry Rules.

Conte has associated himself with the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, a good drug-testing organization that has tested boxers and mixed martial artists and that has gone to great lengths to de-associate itself from him. He has re-emerged in the mainstream, non-boxing press of late because confirmed drug cheat Alex Rodriguez sought out his services, which he didn’t disclose until reporters came a-knocking, which of course gives credence to Conte’s assertion that A-Rod only wanted some safe, legal non-PED supplement advice from one of the sport’s most successful drug cheats. Eye roll.

Yet Conte has his fans in the sports media, and in the boxing media. They are convinced he is clean, which prompted the below series of tweets from me about how maybe Conte has done a number of things since his “reformation” that warrant just the slightest bit of skepticism. That I did this makes me no victim; I definitely threw the first punch.

It's time to have a series of tweets about Victor Conte, heroic crusader. Can provide links for all of this: — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

1. Convicted felon in biggest sports doping scandal of all time. Conte misleads or outright lies about what happened frequently. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

1a: Ex.: Brags bout “doing his time” and not ratting out when Conte sought reduced sentence for same. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

2. Continues to associate with another BALCO figure, Remi Korchemny, and named one of his products for SNAC “PEDs.” How cute. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

3. Claimed he was “involved” with VADA, which Goodman has denied often. VADA’s good, but he uses it as a weapon during fight negotiations. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

4. Has cast aspersions on non-Conte fighters for things like leg cramps as PED evidence, doesn’t say same of HIS fighters having same. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

5. Since transforming into an “anti-doping advocate,” has had two athletes that were affiliated with him — Byrd, Berto — test positive. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

6. Conte is such an “anti-doping expert” that when a fake Memo account bragged about using cat urine as a PED, he believed it. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

7. Claimed his comments were edited in a TQBR story to distort his meaning; they weren’t, he never released the quotes himself when invited. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

8. Flat-out lied about a supposedly fake quote (“fabrication”) attributed to him in an ESPN story, which was totally, 100% accurate. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

9. Did not publicly disclose that he paid for VADA testing for fighters until after Donaire himself mentioned it publicly. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

10. An admitted steroid cheat, A-Rod, approaches him for help. Conte KEEPS THIS SECRET, for some reason. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

11. Excellent PED reporter Elfrink reports that according to MLB sources Bosch, during testimony, said Conte may have given A-Rod EPO. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

Trust the guy I just described at your own risk. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 2, 2014

Two of the tweets warrant updates, one of which is a correction. I erroneously attributed the “cat urine” tweet to a fake Memo Heredia account, when in fact it was a fake Alex Ariza account. Heredia and Ariza are two boxing strength and conditioning coaches who warrant a similar – perhaps even greater – level of skepticism about their trustworthiness compared to that of Conte. Conte spends enormous amounts of time criticizing both men on Twitter. One colleague did an eight-month survey of how often Conte tweeted about Heredia last year, and found that 1,439 of his tweets mentioned Heredia’s Twitter handle, or 44 percent of his overall tweets. Imagine spending nearly half of your social media life fixated on one person. (Heredia had tweeted plenty about Conte, too, just less so: approximately 17 percent of the time.)

The other update is about what writer Tim Elfrink reported about Conte. He tweeted some things about Conte that weren’t in his article, and subsequently deleted those tweets. Here, Conte has raised a valid dispute. But Elfrink stands by his article, which point to some potential high jinks on Conte’s part with A-Rod. The point remains: Whether Conte has solid counter-arguments to every single one of those tweets or not, and he does for some of them, he has amassed plenty of smoke in lieu of fire since his alleged switchover to the side of the angels.

An earlier version of my “feud” with Conte is hinted at in one of the tweets. TQBR interviewed Heredia a while back. The reporter on the story sought out comment from Conte in response to Heredia’s most inflammatory remarks. At my urging, the reporter on the story sought additional comment from Conte. It’s one thing to interview a controversial figure and another thing to both interview that figure and give him wide leeway to say false, propaganda-ish, unanswered things, and both the reporter and myself were determined to hold Heredia to account.

We did not print every single word of Conte’s e-mailed answers (just as we did not print every word of Heredia’s comments), which led to accusations from Conte that we edited his responses to distort his meaning. Yet when Conte was publicly invited to publish every word of his prior comments to demonstrate how we distorted his quotes, he did not do so, and still has not done so. That’s because the gist of his comments was, indeed, faithfully and accurately conveyed.

What really broke the dam on Conte’s decision to attack me of late was that Heredia decided to start retweeting some of my choice remarks about Conte. At the time, we interacted thusly:

The downside of saying bad things about Conte is that you hear from Memo. (Who has me blocked, too.) — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 4, 2014

https://twitter.com/Guruscience/status/496123255024271360

@Guruscience Fair enough. You probably blocked me after seeing me say something critical, tho. Might happen again, be forewarned. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 4, 2014

Both Conte and Heredia had me blocked for a time prior to this exchange on Twitter, which meant – if you’re not conversant in Twitter mores and rules – that any tweet I directed at them would not show up on their timelines. Heredia, however, decided to unblock me, per the above exchange. He might come to regret that decision; time will tell. But Conte clearly spends every waking hour paying attention to what Heredia says and does on his own Twitter timeline. And once Heredia started digging up months-old and even years-old comments I made about Conte, Conte decided I was in cahoots with Heredia, and that he would tweet at me non-stop regardless of the fact that he had me blocked.

Here, we shall let the tweet exchange speak for itself.

@VictorConte @Guruscience NOTHING BITCH-LIKE ABOUT CONSTANTLY TWEETING THIS KIND OF SHIT AT SOMEONE YOU HAVE BLOCKED. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 10, 2014

@tqbr @Guruscience Yes I do block Memo's lil bitches like Tim Starks — Victor Conte (@VictorConte) August 10, 2014

@tqbr @Guruscience Expecially lil uninformed bitches that type in all caps w/ smoke coming out their ass & ears — Victor Conte (@VictorConte) August 10, 2014

@VictorConte @Guruscience I was typing in all caps in mockery of how you can't hear me. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 10, 2014

@VictorConte @Guruscience I wish you were as good at communicating and insulting as you were at running illegal steroid rings. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 10, 2014

@VictorConte @Guruscience (at least until Game of Shadows and federal prosecutors made you THEIR bitch.) — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 10, 2014

@VictorConte @Guruscience now stop talking to me, unless it's to answer how you lied about a reporter in the original tweet — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 10, 2014

That seemed to shut him up for a while. Fortunately or unfortunately – I’ll go with fortunately, because of the ensuing comedy – Heredia continued to RT my remarks about Conte. That meant that tweets Conte might not otherwise have seen because he had me blocked were, in fact, seen by Conte, given his stalking of Heredia’s timeline.

At this point, Conte’s misunderstanding of the nature of Twitter is freaking hilarious. I’ve had some Twitter feuds in my day, none of which made me feel good about myself until this one, because Twitter feuds are almost inherently embarrassing.

@tqbr @Guruscience @KoguruShalor Unfollow & stop acting like a know it all about drug testing because you're lacking in knowldege of PEDs — Victor Conte (@VictorConte) August 11, 2014

@tqbr @Guruscience @KoguruShalor I can hear you. The problem is that you are lacking in knowldege about PEDs yet you act like a know it all — Victor Conte (@VictorConte) August 11, 2014

Conte just asked me to unfollow him. Blocked me long ago. Doesn't understand the Internet. Claims I don't understand PEDs. #caturine #irony — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 11, 2014

This is my all-time favorite Twitter feud that I've been a part of. Usually I think they make everyone look bad. This one's fun and funny. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 11, 2014

Why might Tim Starks promote Memo and his dark side activities in boxing? Are they pimple bros? RT @Guruscience: @tqbr @VictorConte hahaha — Victor Conte (@VictorConte) August 11, 2014

Now he's accusing me of being a "pimple brother!" Conte needs trolling lessons or this is some kind of avant garde comedy. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 11, 2014

@tqbr @Guruscience If you don't like my tweets simply unfollow. IMO. Memo's boxers are suspicious. Secret contracts? No labels on bottles? — Victor Conte (@VictorConte) August 12, 2014

@VictorConte @Guruscience oh my god you are hilariously dumb. I CAN'T follow you. You blocked me. Fuck off. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 12, 2014

Conte's comedy rampage against me continues unabated. Is ZMA a genius pill? ffs — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 12, 2014

1. Who the fuck tweets at someone repeatedly that they have blocked? Who? And tells them to "UNFOLLOW?" Just stop talking to me brah! — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 12, 2014

2. How do you promote someone's "dark shadows" activity? Would that make it non-dark and non-shadowy? — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 12, 2014

3. You don't need to read too far into the TQBR archives — or even Twitter — to find me saying that I don't trust Memo. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 12, 2014

4. He hasn't remotely responded to more than one thing I've ever said about him. He lies about reporters. Period. — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 12, 2014

5. He takes offense to me using all-caps once, which makes me a bitch, but: https://t.co/bHyqLzYKpX — Queensberry Rules (@tqbr) August 12, 2014

By the time this publishes, it probably won’t be over. Judging by Conte’s tweet output, it could be months, even years before he stops tweeting at me, the guy he finds insignificant and ill-informed, the guy he finds to be a bitch and a possible “pimple brother,” the guy he has blocked so he can’t hear what he says unless his greatest enemy RTs it.

And all the while, he’ll be shoveling dirt on the notion that he’s a sincere, honest, upfront-dealing sort who only cares about saving sports from the scourge of PEDs he played such a prominent role in building, rather than being the kind of guy who is preoccupied with prosecuting grudges at all costs, truthfully or no, intelligently or no, against people he has deliberately taken steps not to listen to while he obsessively listens to what they say.