PRIDE Open-weight Grand Prix Tournament

Second Round: Fedor Out, Silva In

July 1, 2006

 Saitama Super Arena

 Saitama, Japan

DSE announced that PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko will not be able to participate in

the second round of the Open-weight Grand Prix tournament on July 1st - Fedor had surgery on his right

hand and the metal plate in his hand will not come out until early June and the doctors felt it would not be

sufficient time for Fedor to completely heal. Look for Fedor to return to action in September. There is also

talk about Fedor fighting the Open-weight GP winner on PRIDE's New Years Eve show. In his place, PRIDE

middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva has been added to the Open-weight GP. The final round of the

Open-weight GP will be held on September 10th at the Saitama Super Arena.

Second Round Open-weight GP Participants:

- Josh Barnett

- Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic

- Kazuyuki Fujita

- Mark Hunt

- Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

- Wanderlei Silva - added

- Fabricio Werdum

- Hidehiko Yoshida

Subject to change

(5/18/06)