I have a feeling that my boyfriend is in Competition with me?

My and my boyfriend has been together for a few years now and he always did things that kind of made me think but it wasn't until one day I kind of rejected him in a way and he went off. Ever since then he has been going on a rant as if he is trying to prove himself. He takes pride in different work and the things that I do as a hobby he tries to excel in, as if he is trying to beat me or something. I always try to coax him and come off none threatening but he always puts up this wall or tells me off, like our relationship is a game. I am a really smart person and so is he, he is very smart he has great diction, he could even be a writer if he wanted to. He knows more things then I truly do and I tell him this and he will back off and be loving again. I'm just tired of feeling this way, he does little thing like says he loves me and then give some sort of sign the he hates me later, it breaks me down and makes me feel insecure. I don't know how to calm him down. I never wanted a relationship like this, I just wanted love, I just wanted to be on the same page with him but he makes me feel weak. I can't go on like this..He always thinks I'm out to get him but now I'm starting to think that every word he says is just an excuse to hurt me. He told me he loved me first and that's when I rejected him, I explained to him that there was things we needed to settle first and that's when he changed. Sometimes I don't know if I'm in a relationship with a man that has the mentality of a boy, he is acting like he lost at something, that he is the sore loser and that I made that happen. I just feel like I'm granting him gratification and that he is lost within his own world and his own problems..but then there is other times where I love him so much and I can see through that he really is just a great man and that I hurt him..but i'm just so confused. How do I get him to see that I love him for who he is, that I always loved him way before these problems occurred..I hate feeling an enemy of his, I don't understand why he can't see that I've always been here and that I care, I really do love him....I'm scared that this has nothing to do with love for him but for his own pride and dignity.