TOKYO, Nov. 2 — The PRIDE Bushido tournament extravaganza kicked off at the official PRIDE Dojo in Takeshiba with a late evening sparring session featuring Brazilian Top Team members Murilo Bustamante (Pictures), David Bielkheden (Pictures) and Paulo Filho (Pictures). Luiz Firmino (Pictures), who fights Nobuhiro Obiya (Pictures), was absent.
Opening the sparring session, Bielkheden and Bustamante took one side of the mat, while Filho trained with members of Brazilian Top Team on the other side.
Both Bielkheden and Bustamante showed off beautiful guard passes and transitions into omoplatas, triangles chokes and arm-locks. Meanwhile, Filho was all about top control, working first on escapes from armbars and leg-locks and later transitioning into side-mount and armbars.
After the short grappling session, BTT fighters engaged in a question-and-answer session with the media. Filho became the main target of questions, due to his role as a semifinalist in the Welterweight Grand Prix.
Filho opened with comments about his condition — mentally and physically — for Sunday’s 183-pound tournament’s culmination, which also features Kazuo Misaki (Pictures) (Filho’s opponent), Denis Kang (Pictures) and Akihiro Gono (Pictures).
“My condition is good and I just concentrated on the finals of the tournament,” Filho said.
Added Bustamante: “Out of the four fighters remaining, Filho is the strongest.”
“I already checked videos from Kazuo Misaki (Pictures)’s fights against Dan Henderson (Pictures) and Phil Baroni (Pictures),” Filho said. “Misaki is a very good athlete that grows up every day in confidence and technique, however I don’t see myself engaged with Misaki in a long standing battle but rather working my game and looking for the armbar.
“I hear Misaki wants to use leg-locks against me, but my offense and defense against these techniques are sharp. This will be a battle between his leg-locks and my armbars.”
Bustamante, a Brazilian Top Team founder, told the press he was glad to be back in the Bushido ring.
“I have no injuries this time and because of all the hard training for the last couple of months, I just want to fight aggressive against Dong Sik Yoon (Pictures),” the former UFC middleweight champion said.
Bustamante stated that he helped Filho prepare for Sunday’s card.
“I gave Filho some advice regarding the finals of the tournament and we trust the championship will go to Brazilian Top Team,” said the veteran Brazilian.
Finally, Bielkheden closed the evening talking about how this is the first time he’s fighting at 160 pounds, down over 20 pounds from where he’s been for the majority of his 14 professional bouts.
“Preparation is what really matters,” he said. “My condition is very good and I worked hard on my stamina in preparation for my fight against Mitsuhiro Ishida (Pictures).”
Bushido 13 takes place Sunday at the Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan. North America’s pay-per-view broadcast will air the following week.
