It was a wild day in MMA, with the shocking news that Fedor Emelianenko won't fight on August 1 after all, and that the UFC and Affliction have joined forces. So there's a lot to get to in our latest MMA twitter mailbag, where we address what's next for Fedor, whether he wants to test himself against the best opponents in the world, or whether Fedor is simply such an amazing physical specimen that no human being can defeat him.
The mailbag begins below.
OrangeChuck: What if Strikeforce gets Fedor and signs Bobby Lashley as well?
I think there's a real chance that Strikeforce will get Fedor: I'm told that Fedor likes Strikeforce better than the UFC, largely because he thinks a Strikeforce contract will offer him more flexibility than a UFC contract will. I wouldn't even totally rule out the possibility of Fedor fighting on the August 15 Strikeforce card, which would be an amazing turn of events. Remember, a very good heavyweight, Fabricio Werdum, is scheduled to fight on the Strikeforce card and doesn't have an opponent because of the injury to Alistair Overeem.
But I really dislike the idea of Fedor fighting Lashley, at least any time soon. Lashley, though a big name from his pro wrestling days and an impressive physical specimen, is simply not ready for an opponent like Fedor.To me, that's just a spectacle, and Fedor should be fighting against the best opponents in the world. Which leads me to...
PJHarrison: Fedor wants to fight people he knows he can beat..I can't wait to watch him lose so all this BS hype is over!
I disagree. A while back, when Fedor was fighting Zuluzinho and Hong Man Choi, you could make the case that he only wanted to fight people he could beat. But for his last three fights, he scheduled Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett: All fighters who were considered Top 5 heavyweights at the time Fedor signed on to fight them. And even after Barnett failed his drug test and had to be pulled from Affliction Trilogy, Fedor's camp was angling for a fight with Brett Rogers, who I consider a tougher test than Affliction's preferred replacement, Vitor Belfort. So I think we should give Fedor credit for doing his best to find the best competition he can, and I give him the benefit of the doubt that he'll keep doing that.
yourfaceblog: They should just have Fedor start fighting progressively larger animals at this point. Maybe start with a jaguar.
Or what about Fedor vs. a hurricane? Hold on, Hold on, Hold on. The name of the hurricane is Hurricane Fedor.
robotplague: How does MMA traffic compare to other sports Fanhouse covers? What type of posts tend to get the most traffic? Surprised?
Interesting question. The short answer is I don't know, because I don't have access to all of our internal traffic data. But I've been told by the higher-ups that they're pleased with MMA FanHouse, both the quality of the content and the traffic numbers. As longtime FanHouse readers know, we've grown from basically just me writing about MMA to a team that includes Ariel Helwani, Mike Chiappetta and Ray Hui, and I wouldn't be surprised if we keep growing. I also took a quick look at the traffic numbers at Alexa and saw MMA FanHouse listed as second only to NFL FanHouse under the heading of "Where people go on FanHouse.com." I don't fully understand how Alexa calculates those numbers, so I'd urge you to take that with a grain of salt, but it seems like a good sign.
As for the posts that get the most traffic, again, I can't say for sure, but from what I can gather I'd say it's usually what we do on the weekends of the big MMA shows. There's so much excitement that builds for a really big fight, and it's exciting to me to see how many people come to FanHouse to read about really big fights before, during (our live blogs have always been popular) and after the events.
Am I surprised by our traffic? Not really. MMA is an increasingly popular sport, and it's a sport that newspapers usually ignore. That means the web is the place to be if you're an MMA fan looking for information about your favorite fighters, and I'm glad a lot of MMA fans have found our corner of the web.
Want to be part of our next MMA Twitter mailbag? Post a question or comment on Twitter.com, and be sure to start it with @MichaelDavSmith.
The mailbag begins below.
OrangeChuck: What if Strikeforce gets Fedor and signs Bobby Lashley as well?
I think there's a real chance that Strikeforce will get Fedor: I'm told that Fedor likes Strikeforce better than the UFC, largely because he thinks a Strikeforce contract will offer him more flexibility than a UFC contract will. I wouldn't even totally rule out the possibility of Fedor fighting on the August 15 Strikeforce card, which would be an amazing turn of events. Remember, a very good heavyweight, Fabricio Werdum, is scheduled to fight on the Strikeforce card and doesn't have an opponent because of the injury to Alistair Overeem.
But I really dislike the idea of Fedor fighting Lashley, at least any time soon. Lashley, though a big name from his pro wrestling days and an impressive physical specimen, is simply not ready for an opponent like Fedor.To me, that's just a spectacle, and Fedor should be fighting against the best opponents in the world. Which leads me to...
PJHarrison: Fedor wants to fight people he knows he can beat..I can't wait to watch him lose so all this BS hype is over!
I disagree. A while back, when Fedor was fighting Zuluzinho and Hong Man Choi, you could make the case that he only wanted to fight people he could beat. But for his last three fights, he scheduled Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett: All fighters who were considered Top 5 heavyweights at the time Fedor signed on to fight them. And even after Barnett failed his drug test and had to be pulled from Affliction Trilogy, Fedor's camp was angling for a fight with Brett Rogers, who I consider a tougher test than Affliction's preferred replacement, Vitor Belfort. So I think we should give Fedor credit for doing his best to find the best competition he can, and I give him the benefit of the doubt that he'll keep doing that.
yourfaceblog: They should just have Fedor start fighting progressively larger animals at this point. Maybe start with a jaguar.
Or what about Fedor vs. a hurricane? Hold on, Hold on, Hold on. The name of the hurricane is Hurricane Fedor.
robotplague: How does MMA traffic compare to other sports Fanhouse covers? What type of posts tend to get the most traffic? Surprised?
Interesting question. The short answer is I don't know, because I don't have access to all of our internal traffic data. But I've been told by the higher-ups that they're pleased with MMA FanHouse, both the quality of the content and the traffic numbers. As longtime FanHouse readers know, we've grown from basically just me writing about MMA to a team that includes Ariel Helwani, Mike Chiappetta and Ray Hui, and I wouldn't be surprised if we keep growing. I also took a quick look at the traffic numbers at Alexa and saw MMA FanHouse listed as second only to NFL FanHouse under the heading of "Where people go on FanHouse.com." I don't fully understand how Alexa calculates those numbers, so I'd urge you to take that with a grain of salt, but it seems like a good sign.
As for the posts that get the most traffic, again, I can't say for sure, but from what I can gather I'd say it's usually what we do on the weekends of the big MMA shows. There's so much excitement that builds for a really big fight, and it's exciting to me to see how many people come to FanHouse to read about really big fights before, during (our live blogs have always been popular) and after the events.
Am I surprised by our traffic? Not really. MMA is an increasingly popular sport, and it's a sport that newspapers usually ignore. That means the web is the place to be if you're an MMA fan looking for information about your favorite fighters, and I'm glad a lot of MMA fans have found our corner of the web.
Want to be part of our next MMA Twitter mailbag? Post a question or comment on Twitter.com, and be sure to start it with @MichaelDavSmith.