Yoshida Out?

Well, now that the opening round of the Pride middleweight tournament is in the books, the rumors are starting to fly.

According to the Japanese version of the Pride website, Yoshida was checked by a doctor that found some torn cartilage in his knee.

He will need at least two months for it to heal. That timeline makes it rather tight whether he will be able to continue in the tournament. Pride has announced that they will select the draw for the next round in September. They will wait until then to see if Yoshida will be able to continue or if they will need a replacement.

But the rumors have already started - Yoshida will not continue. He will bow out since he knows he can not win. Whether this is true or not is for others to debate. We tend to give the fighter the benefit of the doubt, so he says he wants to continue, we believe him.

But just in case he can't continue,  who will replace him? Will it be a Gracie as stated by Renzo Gracie when this tournament was first announced that he wanted a Gracie in the tournament. Maybe it will be Rickson. Hey, he already participated in a jiu-jitsu tournament in Brazil not to long ago. He won his first two matches before losing the third to a fellow Brazilian Black Belt. Maybe he's working out the kinks. Maybe it will be Renzo himself or maybe Dan Henderson or maybe they'll give Saku another chance.

The fact remains we can only speculate. It will be interesting, however, if Yoshida does continue. Will he continue to wear the Gi?

If he does continue, we think the brackets will look something like this:

Fight 1

Quenton Jackson vs. Vanderlai Silva

Fight 2

Yoshida vs. Chuck Liddell

The reasoning: Fight 1 will produce a Pride fighter in the finals. Not to mention that Jackson is ranked # 1 for

the middleweight title that Silva holds, so no matter who loses, a rematch is almost certain. 

Fight 2 will produce a marketing ploy for the final - Either a Japanese Judo expert in the final for the people

of Japan (Yoshida vs. Tamura scored high ratings in Japan) or it will be the UFC vs. Pride in the final. 

But hey, we're just guessing.

(8/14/03)