Pride GP "Mirko Filipovic is regaining strength after the defeat in Pride Shockwave, on New Year ’s Eve. Nevertheless, he is sure that Pride open weight GP belt will be his. Even more when the big final is set to September 10th, his birthday. Filipovic is right in the middle of his training program to fight Japanese Ikuhisa Minowa, at his opening combat in Pride GP. He refuses to talk about his injuries and says it only gives his opponents the map against him. He admits to have been watching Minowa's tapes and have chosen sparrings that look alike the Japanese. He considers Pride GP his major goal and assures to give his best to conquer the belt. Filipovic is sorry to hear that heavyweight champion Fedor Emelyanenko will not be able to participate at the first round, held on May 5th. Emelyanenko is recovering from a surgery on the right hand. The Croatian considers the GP to be the hardest event of all, once you have to beat four top fighters to win, two of which in the same night. He also applauds the merging of weights, what he considers to be a challenge. Filipovic believes that each fighter have to give its best to overcome physical differences. ” I’m not old.", he says. But he knows he is running out of time and wants the GP title to crown his career. He thinks 35 (Filipovic is 32) is the age limit for a good performance. After that, he says, even if the body is still fit, the mind does not respond so well. So now is the time and Filipovic knows it. There will not be a better oportunity to conquer the title than this one, especially with the big final on the day of his birthday. The Croatian does not talk about the two failed attempts he had to the GP title (lost to Minotauro in 2003 and to Randelman in 2004). He says its part of the past and must be forgotten. Life goes on. For the future, Filipovic wants to open a big fighting center. The best of Europe, as he says. The goal is to reveal new talents." So guys what do you think? Will he make it? Who is your fav?
He will almost certainly make it to round 2, as this is something of a gift first round matchup for him. Minowa has been fighting at 185, and even if he bulks up for this, shouldn't come any bigger than about 200. While there's a slim chance Minowa could drag it to the ground and catch a leglock or something, odds are, he's gonna get kicked and punched. A lot. In the head.
From what I understand, Fedor being in this GP is a fairly large IF. He's still recovering from his hand surgery. Although he's been given a bye into the next round, the jury's still out as to whether he'll be fit to participate I'm not overly sold on the idea of the OWGP, to be honest. I'm just not excited about it - the sport's at the point now where everyone at this level is skilled enough that size will make a difference. Silva and some of the bigger middleweights could make for some interesting matchups since they walk around at heavyweight anyway, but I really hope we don't see any serious size mismatches like Gomi fighting heavyweights
*SPOILERS* Pride OWGP Round 1 Results [EXPAND="Results"]- Roman Zentsov defeats Gilbert Yvel in round 1 by KO - Fabricio Werdum defeats Alistair Overeem in round 2 by armlock - Mark Hunt defeats Tsuyoshi Kosaka (TK) in round 2 by KO - Josh Barnett defeats Alexander Emelianenko in round 2 by armlock - Kazuyuki Fujita defeats James Thompson in round 2 by KO - Mirko Cro Cop defeats Ikuhisa Minowa in round 1 by TKO - Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira defeats Zulu in round 1 by armbar - Hidehiko Yoshida defeats Yousuke Nishijima in round 1 by triangle[/EXPAND] Pretty good event, I thought. I wasn't overly sold on the whole open weight thing, but it seems to have come together pretty well. The Hunt/ TK fight was great
Agreed, I was a little wary of blowing my money on this event but it turned out to be worth it. What's REALLY sick? Look who's in the NEXT round. These are going to be some absolutely GREAT battles. Much better matchups in terms of skill/experience than some...like Crocop v Minowa or Nog v Zulu.
Oh I was happy for cro cop, he needed his feast of blood SOMETIME it's only fair to uplift him psychologically somehow.
dissapointed that silva isnt on the cards, but the fights were still great. I love watching Hunt fight
i thought bas left pride as an announcer earlier this year over cash & "time" taken from his "acting" amitions. trigg was to be his replacement and was on the pride fc cable show. however, he has been absent & sux in that role. unless something changed & they decided to pay bas more....
Oh definitely, and this time he HAD a great fight too...his opponent was BALLSY, you gotta give him that.
Unfortunately money was the issue with Wandy. According to him Pride just wouldn't pay him as much as he wanted. Rumor has it that K-1 have offered him double what Pride has.
No official word yet, but I'd say probably July sometime after the next Bushido event which is June 4th
i'm really looking forward to the upcoming fights. i can hardly wait to see who'll fight fedor for the title. i'd love to see another crocop vs fedor fight.
I dont know for sure though I heard that Bas is working on a team oriented event that will place team X & Y against each other, who ever wins the most matches well you know the rest.
Too bad, Fedors not going to be in this GP - his hand won't heal in time. So to replace him, Pride have brought in ..... the Axe Murderer - Wanderlei Silva!
