Fox Sports 1 launches Saturday. And predictably, all parties are turning up the rhetoric.

Even Regis Philbin, the new sports kid at 81, engaged in some trash talking in a Los Angeles Times story on Fox Sports 1 by Joe Flint.

“I think it’s time for ESPN to get a little competition, don’t you?”

Bring it on, Regis.

Over the weekend, Bill Simmons engaged with the Fox Sports Live twitter feed.

Not a bad comeback by Fox Sports Live. However, it still sounds like a little dog snipping at the paws of a 200-pound German shepherd.

When it comes to trash talking, it is hard to beat ESPN president John Skipper. He got off a couple of good lines in Flint’s article.

ESPN President John Skipper isn’t sweating Fox Sports 1 and doesn’t think the Fox News analogy works. “There is a dramatic difference,” Skipper said. “If CNN had exclusive rights to the inauguration, election results and weather, Fox News wouldn’t have snuck up and whupped them.”

ESPN hasn’t built an empire by ignoring its rear view mirror. Over the past few years, it has been shelling out billions to lock up several marquee events, including the Bowl Championship Series. Besides its roster of professional sports including the NFL, baseball and basketball, ESPN has rights to practically all the big college football conferences and marquee golf and tennis events, including Wimbledon.

“We bought up a lot of beachfront property,” Skipper said.

Former ESPN executive Mark Shapiro also put it in perspective:

“It is not a hill they have to climb, it’s the Grand Canyon,” said Mark Shapiro, a former ESPN executive. “ESPN has built such a big moat around itself the Russian army of the Cold War couldn’t get in.”

Ah, it should be fun. And it all starts Saturday in what will be a big week for sports media.

Ken Fang at Fang’s Bites has the complete rundown of Fox Sports 1’s menu and the start of the Premier League on NBC SN.

Starting tomorrow, I will have a look at some of Fox Sports 1’s signature shows.