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I just wanted to give everyone a heads up to let you know that no spoilers will be posted here for Pride this weekend. I’ll be watching the American PPV like most people here and trying to avoid any news until then myself.

I posted my predictions on the GP and HW championship fights earlier, but now I’d like to talk about the other fights on the card.

David “Tank” Abbott vs. Hidehiko Yoshida

This fight is in the hands of Yoshida. If Tank faces the same Yoshida who submitted Mark Hunt, this could be a very short fight with Yoshida Claiming the win. If the Yoshida who faced Rulon Garnder steps in the ring however… it could be an equally short fight that he won’t remember.

All “brawler” type fighters have that punchers chance, but due to Tanks massive strength, it’s a little better than most. He looks to be in good shape, I’ve heard reports that he’s benching 600 and has excellent cardio. Rumor has it he’s even completed a marathon… however true that may be, I still don’t think it’s wise to count him out as easily as most people are doing. There are too many variables here to be honest, I think there’s a 50/50 shot either way. For some reason though I really want to see Tank pull off the upset.

Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura

Nakamura looked very impressive against Kevin Randleman, not so impressive against Wanderlei however.

Since dropping to 205, Igor looks great. The ground game he played with Yuki Kondo surprised me quite a bit. His ground skills seemed top notch in that fight. I’m giving the advantage to Igor on this one. For one, I think he’ll try and keep it standing. I’m pretty sure part of the reason he didn’t slug it out with Kondo was fear of injury which could cause problems in later rounds of the GP. With no such concerns this time, I see him going for the KO.

If it does go to the ground, I don’t expect Igor to pull off the sub, but I’m sure he can avoid getting caught in one long enough to get back to his feet.

Fabricio Werdum vs.Roman Zentsov

I’ll be honest, the only fighter here I’ve seen is Werdum at pride 29… and I don’t remember the fight off the top of my head. However, looking just at their records, it appears Werdum is the guy with the best shot at winning this. Either of these guys could be up and coming, so I’ll save my prediction on this one.