Every now and then I seem to write a column that incites hostility, anger and, more importantly, a string of hate mail. To be honest, it’s been quite some time since yours truly had his inbox filled to its gills with such spiteful and derogatory messages. But, like the true warrior that I think I am, I roll with the punches, escape submissions and gouge my thumbs into the eyes of my attackers.

Luckily nobody has threatened my life or my beautiful Cover Girl face this time around, but the hordes of hot-tempered marauders were barging down my firewall, sparking a terrifying rash of arson, robbery and plunder.

Well, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but the tidal wave of nasty e-mails and MySpace messages was at an all-time high.

Sheesh!

So much for delivering a column laced with a positive spin! It seems like the more positive my column gets, the angrier you all become.

One key component to the string of comments calling for my head is the fact that they become impetus for a follow-up column: the dreaded mailbag. So while boatloads of flamers attack me via keyboard strokes, rest assured legions of Sherdog.com regulars: I will always return.

What Gives?

Too funny are the masses that either loathe or love Tito Ortiz (Pictures). Whenever I write anything about the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy,” it seems that my inbox will overflow with pro- or anti-Ortiz sentiment. Whenever I failed to give Ortiz enough credit, I was the world’s biggest jerk. But now, after I praise his performance, I have become an even bigger jerk!

It’s actually quite sad, to be honest, to realize that Tito can’t get a fair shake no matter what he does. I criticized him a few years ago when it appeared as though he was ducking Chuck, but ever since Ortiz has been written about in a positive light in my articles and columns. Like they say in life: you can’t please everybody.

Mr. Sloan, you have to be the biggest bias writer on staff at Sherdog, which is a great site. But why do you hate Liddell so much? It’s obvious that you hate Chuck and are a Tito nut hugger. Tito got killed out there and you said the stoppage was premature. What fight were you watching? Tito wasn’t even defending himself! Get off of Tito’s wagon and onto Chuck’s. You are praising the wrong guy! – Aaron

Well, it is easy to see that I am such an anti-Chuck/pro-Tito media member after reading my column, Aaron, considering that I said Chuck was the greatest 205-pounder in the history of the UFC. The Tito praise was merely my opinion on how well he did against Liddell.

As for the stoppage, well, nothing landed cleanly at all. Tito covered up and blocked virtually everything Chuck threw. Was Tito going to survive? Probably not. But the fact is that he was not getting hammered and I feel it was stopped a bit early.

I think Tito and his crew pay you a lot of money because what you wrote was disgusting. Nobody thought Tito did a good job against Chuck because he got beat up. Tito sucks but you say he is the greatest fighter ever because he looked good. Whatever! Its hard to take someone like you seriously when all you do is write this garbage about how great Tito is Tito is a B level fighter and he’ll never amount to anything. What did he do accept get knocked out? Nothing. – Joey R. (from Norfolk)

I wish Tito paid me a lot of money for being honest because if he did, I’d be a millionaire by now. Oh yeah, when exactly did I say Tito was the greatest fighter ever?

Gomi Believers

Are you nuts, Mike Sloan??? Gomi destroyed Ishida in under two minutes! How could you not say he was impressive? Whatever you are smoking, I want some! – Jesse Sandoval

Mike. Now I know you are insane! I don’t know what it will take for Sherdog to stop paying you whatever they pay you but enough is enough. Seriously, though, I enjoy reading your columns and I agree with most of what you write. I actually agreed with everything you wrote in that column (New Year’s Reverie) but the Gomi thing caught me by surprise. Why do you think Takanori Gomi (Pictures) was not impressive against the awesome Mitsuhiro Ishida (Pictures)? If you have to use your own Fight Finder, you’ll see that Ishida is the same guy who hadn’t lost in over two years, the last loss coming to the awesome Vitor Ribeiro (Pictures). He is also the same guy who beat Marcus Aurelio who was fresh off a choke out submission of Gomi. I know Gomi is the best but how could you not be impressed by Gomi’s performance? – Mark J. (Sacramento)

Gomi not impressive? What? Now I’ve seen everything! Why were you not impressed by Gomi DESTROYING Ishida? Ishida’s a bad ass and Gomi took him out in 1:14 of the first round? Please explain why you weren’t impressed with THAT! – No name given

Settle down! I was being somewhat sarcastic when I wrote that Gomi snippet and I probably didn't phrase it correctly. Yes, his win was excellent. But I honestly felt Ishida was a bit over-hyped going in and I honestly expected Gomi to obliterate him. Ishida, while tough, hadn’t beaten anybody who is considered the best coming in and the win over Aurelio, while impressive, didn’t elicit much excitement on my end. Aurelio looked flat against Ishida and Mitsuhiro’s two wins since the Aurelio win were against decent guys, not elite guys. I truly expected Gomi to steamroll him and take him out quickly. I honestly did. Maybe my expectations were too high? I dunno. I guess when I expect something, and it happens exactly as I think it will, I don't get impressed.

Jardine Not the Goods?

How the f*^$ can you come out and say that Keith Jardine (Pictures) will destroy everything in his path except for Tito and Chuck. Jardine is good I will give him that but you actually think he will destroy guys like Rampage, Bisping and Babalu? Come on dude. Your writing is just awful and I wish you’d get fired. There is no way Jardine is this good. He’d get murdered by almost anybody at 205, even Griffin. – Solomon Gomez

Not only did your constant nut hugging of Tito Ortiz (Pictures) make my stomach churn with disgust, who do you think you are to say that Keith Sardine can and will beat everybody at light heavyweight? Have you ever heard of Rampage Jackson, Ricardo Arona (Pictures) or even Michael Bisping (Pictures)? What about Babalu? All of these guy would f*^% up Sardine in seconds. That was the worst written article you’ve done thus far. – Keith

Wow, I had no idea that so many people hate Keith Jardine (Pictures) except for me. I have received a ton of these e-mails (more than any other aspect of my column) and the vast majority of you people mention Rampage, Babalu and Bisping. I mentioned that Jardine is still a little green and what I wrote was merely my opinion and nothing else. Rarely am I wrong when I make bold predictions like that and when it comes to Jardine; I know what he is capable of. He trains with easily the best core of training partners this side of the Miletich camp and his potential is still far from being maximized.

When it comes to “Rampage,” I am not convinced anymore. He wasn’t the same fighter after Wanderlei whipped him the first time, and especially after the second thrashing at the hands of Silva. Moreover, Jackson has not had the same hunger or desire or anger ever since he found God. To me, and this is just my opinion, Rampage’s time has come and gone. Unless he can unearth that lost passion to slaughter everything in sight, Jardine will beat him. As for Babalu, forget it. He’s good, no doubt, but Jardine is a better all around fighter. And lastly, Bisping is mentioned. I know Bisping has loads of potential but he is even greener than Jardine. He needs much more experience than does Jardine.

Cut Him Some Slack

Mike Sloan you are a complete retard. How the hell can you think that new Pride commentator was great? OMG you are a moron! That new guy is worse than anybody Pride has ever had including the terrible Frank Trigg (Pictures) who just sucks the big one. – Sean McDonald (California)

I have to politely disagree with you in regards to the new PRIDE commentator being good. I thought he was pretty bad. Not terrible, but you seem to like him a lot. Were you watching the same telecast? He is the worst guy they’ve had so far. Other than that, keep up the good work. Not trying to start a fight. – Roman Kovalenko (California)

I said he wasn’t that bad. I never said he was terrific or anything like that. All I said was that the new guy was getting way too much hate and to cut him some slack. He was not as terrible as everybody was making him out to be, that’s all.

Forrest

Hey Mike. Do you think Forrest Griffin (Pictures) hurt his image by storming out of the cage like that and for crying? I think it might. Just wanted to get your OP. – Mike from Phoenix

Hey Mike: Nah, he’ll be just fine. Forrest is loved by almost everybody and most people with some common sense know he was emotional. Griffin will bounce back without losing his fans. He’ll be OK.

You can hit me up at www.myspace.com/sherdogsloan