Open-Weight GP Round 2 Matchups

[Mr_Furious]

Hey guys! Pride FC announced the official 2nd round matchups for its Open-weight GP on July 1.

Wanderlei Silva Vs. Fujita
Minotauro Vs. Werdum
Yoshida Vs. Crocop
Barnet Vs. Hunt

These have the potential for some interesting matchups. First, fujita will prove to be a very difficult fight for silva. we all know from his fight with fedor that fujita has very heavy hands when he lands. he may not have looked fluent on his feet against thompson but that was a 2-way slugfest in the true sense of the word. he also has one of the strongest chins in the world of mma - he took massive knees from both Kerr and Crocop in their first fight without getting knocked out. Silva won't be able to knock him out standing with either his hands or knees from the clinch, nor will he be able to take him down and gnp him/submit him. fujita on the other hand has more than enough power to take down silva and control him on the ground. while silva is one of my favourite fighters of all time, i don't see him stopping a fighter as powerful as fujita. That being said, the longer the fight lasts, the greater chance silva has of winning by decision, provided fujita doesn't get some serious gnp in in the mean time. Silva's striking is lightyears ahead of Fujita and his canniness for avoiding submissions and his improved groundwork (compare his guard and escapes in Arona 2 with his first performance against arona) means that he will win points in the standup and minimise the damage fujita can do after the inevitable takedown. My tip is a very close first round but Silva by decision in the end.

Minotauro and Werdum...2 excellent MMA grapplers and submission artists. Minotauro also has excellent boxing skills, as seen in his decision win against kharitonov in what was essentially a standup battle, and werdum trains at the crocop gym and handled the standup aspect of his fight with overeem very well. In terms of pure grappling, Werdum is the more decorated competitor and that triangle he pulled on zentsov was GOLD! minotauro, on the other hand, has arguably made the best use of grappling in the world of modern MMA. Standing, you have to give Nog the advantage and he has shown that he can use his protected boxing style very well to set up his ground game. Nevertheless, nogueira has never faced an opponent with the grappling and submission skills of werdum (possibly with the exception of nastula, but we all know what happened there). This fight will eventually go to the ground and I can't see nog inflicting insurmountable damage in the standup, particularly seeing how werdum's standup abilities seem to be evolving. If any fight were to end in an upset, this could be the one. I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict Werdum by submission in the final round .

I'm off to bed...this is a hell of a lot more than i planned on typing! guess i got carried away. To be continued...

[zephead]

Fujita has a chance to KO Wandy if he catches him, but Fujita is a little slow with his punches. If Wandy comes in like he does against " the cans" in Pride, then he'll get cought. But I think Wandy will stay back and pick his spots and get a TKO.

Nog should get the submission, but this'll will be a great match.

Cro-Cop will KO him. Nasty head kick.

This is the interesting fight here. Hunt has a head of stone. Barnett should get a submission win. He needs to pick his spots, try to soften Hunt up and get the takedown. On the other hand, Hunt needs to stay away from the clinch and just bang. Barnett by submission

[unit021]

it'll take a lot for Silva to knock out Fujita. that dude has taken tremendous shots from the top in the game. he's also the only person who has ever had Fedor in trouble via KO. so the dude has power. if Fujita's trainer, Marco Ruas, is smart, he'll watch the fights against Arona and Hunt to see what Silva had problems against. Silva has a punchers chance, but he better bulk up some to insure that his punches have a little more impact. Fujita via TKO.

Werdum and Big Nog will definitely be a ground battle. Nog does have the better stand up skills, but i can't remember if he's ever KO'd someone. i know that Werdum has won several championships in BJJ, but i still don't know if that'll be enough to take out Big Nog. Big Nog via sub.

Cro Cop and Yoshida might go down the same way that Minowa and Cro Cop went. Yoshida's best bet would be to go to the ground. even tho Cro Cop has improved, i think that Yoshida could get a W somehow. i mean Kevin Randleman holds a W over Cro Cop and no one ever expected that. Cro Cop by TKO.

Hunt and Barnett will be interesting as well. if Barnett is still anxious in the opening minutes, Hunt can take advantage of that and prolly KO him. if it goes to the ground, i don't see Barnett getting an easy sub. TK had Hunt in one sub and almost had him in another one at the same time. Hunt has skills on the ground, just not as good as Barnett's. i'm gonna say Hunt via KO.