Pride 26 Predictions

"Bad to the Bone"

 

 

 

Pride is coming… and its coming fast - June 13, 2003. They have a great fight card scheduled. To begin with:

 

Ricardo Arona will no longer fight Alistair Overeem. Overeem will now fight Mike Bencic.

Now for my predictions.

 

A fight that I really look forward to watching is Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Mikhail Ilioukhine.  I don’t know much about Ilioukhine but I know Jackson. 

 

I  think Jackson will stick to his game plan and stand-up and strike and be able to pull off another win via KO.  And then hopefully the Pride organization will give him a chance to go for the belt against the one and only Vanderlei Silva. The inDemand PPV synopsis has Rampage fighting Silva but Silva is not completely healed from a previous injury. If Jackson advances, look for a fight between the two possibly in August.

 

Next, Heath Herring vs. Micro “Cro Crop” Filipovic  - this fight could go either way at any moment. Both fighters posses great punching power and both are very capable of putting combos together but I give the  stand-up edge to Filipovic, a K1 fighter. Herring might try to stand-up with him but that would be a mistake. Herring needs to take him to the ground and pound on him till the ref stops the fight. But will Herring be able to keep him on the ground after he takes him down? I give this one to Filipovic by TKO. I think he will cause enough damage standing-up that it will be hard for Herring to keep him down to be able to pound on him.

And the Great matches just keep on coming.

 

Fedor Emelianenko vs Kuzuyuki Fujita.  I’ve been hearing a lot that Fujita is going to win this one.  The reason why?  Well, he is just as devastator of a puncher as Emelianenko and he has better ground skills. Well, first I think you should know that I admire Fujita. He has the heart of a lion. He is a great fighter but I don’t think he is going to be able to stop the on going onslaught that Emelianenko will deliver and it doesn’t matter whether he’s on the ground or standing. So I give this one to Emelianenko by KO in the 2nd round.

 

And last but certainly not least, Mark Coleman vs. Don Frye. Damn, this is a good one! As I sat back and thought about it, only one thought kept popping into my mind - Don Frye by KO towards the last round when Coleman is tired and has a tendency of dropping his hands. 

Well that’s all folks.

Till next time.

AL

 

 

 

 

(6/3/03)