Holy shit Pride as well as its Bushido show are pulling out all the stops this year! Apart from the Pride Middleweight GP, Pride today announced that the first round of the Lightweight as well as Welterweight tournaments both kick off on their September 25th show. Both are 8 man tournaments.
The names under official consideration for the LW tourney are as follows:
Gomi
"Mach" Sakurai
Kawajiri
Kotani
Mishima
Jens Pulver
Yves Edwards
Ralph Gracie
Luiz Azeredo
Buscape
Charles 'Crazy Horse' Bennett (sp?)
Joachim Hansen
Gomi is the first fighter who has been officially announced. Gomi said his dream final would be against Mach Sakurai, who Gomi has lots of respect and admiration for. Either way, any match ups you make, they all look good!
As for the 8 man Welterweight tounrament held at the same time, the following names are under consideration:
Ryo Chonan
Minowa
Gohno
Misaki
Ryuta Sakurai
Yasu Namekawa
Akira Shoji (wtf?)
Daniel Acacio (sp?)
Murillo Bustamante
Phil Baroni
Dennis Kahn
Paulo Filho
They are thinking about Yuki Kondo as well.
This is a great time to be a fan!