this is how i see it going down...
they will feed giant silva to ogawa in hopes that they will have a japanese in the semis. this could go either way really.
randleman will be matched up with fedor to try and get revenge for his teammate. fedor will proceed to pimp him.
nog could face any of schilt (II), herring (II), or sergei. but if they gave him sergei, schilt and herring who are teammates would have to fight. and out of the 2 rematch possibilities i think nog vs herring II is the more intruiging one, so i think that is what will happen. it will be good fight but i see nog pulling out another decision.
this leaves schilt vs kharitonov. i think sergei will tool semmy handily on the ground. battle of the ivan dragos... i like it.
this brings us to the semis, where we have sergei, fedor, nog, and probably ogawa. i see them doing sergei vs nog (could go either way) and fedor vs ogawa. this leaves us with either fedor vs nog II in the finals, or fedor vs kharitonov, battle of the ex-teammates. either one will be a dramatic end to the best tourney of all time~!
Giant Silva vs Schilt (Battle of the Giants)
Randleman vs Fedor (Revenge for Coleman)
Kharitinov vs Herring
Minotauro vs ogawa (like Mino requested)
i like those matchups.
Not a bad Matchup Steak Knife.
Steak Knife, that looks like a perfect fight card for the 2nd round.
>>they will feed giant silva to ogawa in hopes that they will have a japanese in the semis.<<
Probably true considering Yoshida also was fed a silva in the middle weight tourney last year.
Yeah, I like Steak Knife's card too.
i like steak knife's better than the one i posted... but i just don't see them making the ogawa vs nog match this early in the tourney.
but lets just say they do make SK's card for a minute...
the semis would probably be kharitonov vs schilt and nog vs fedor. that leaves fedor vs kharitonov in the finals. fedor wins any way you slice it but he won't have an easy way there.
hermeneus, the difference is that the 2nd round of the GP decides who goes to the semis (3rd round, with the finals being the same day). The MW GP only had 8 people, but they did guarantee that a bid draw local fighter would be in the semis (ie. final show) by having Tamura vs. Yoshida (two popular Japanese fighters, no matter who wins, a Japanese player is in the semis).
I think that Ogawa will get Giant Silva for that very reason. Silva is SOOOO slow, and Ogawa will be able to clinch, adn control the Giant on the ground.
Sergei vs. Mino should happen IMO. Sergei fights similarly to Fedor, so this sets up a potential showdown in the finals.
Randleman vs. Fedor is a good idea.
Herring vs. Schilt should happen now so that the two can't bow out in the final show and cause some contraversy (force them to fight right now).
So:
Ogawa vs. Giant Silva
Randleman vs. Fedor
Sergei vs. Minotauro
Herring vs. Schilt
I'll take Ogawa, Fedor, Sergei, and Schilt.
Ogawa vs. Fedor and Sergei vs. Schilt in the semis.
yeah, but they must have agreed to fight each other, I say have them fight now...
ttt
Steak Knife's card is nice but I think I'd rather see Fedor/Ogawa and Mino/Randleman.
I *hope* Ogawa drops out and we see Waterman/Fedor though.
interesting to see that they will have to work around guys from the same teams fighting eachother like Schilt/Herring and Fedor/Kharitinov, those two matches probably wouldn't be considered until they HAVE to fight