PRIDE Middleweight GP 8/28 results

Some interesting results from last night's PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix finals show at the Saitama Super Arena. UFC legend Tank Abbott made his PRIDE debut, but came up short against Judo star Hidehiko Yoshida. I was really hoping Tank would win here to get a good start in Japan, but with the loss I'm not even sure we'll see him there again. He lost by submission to a katahajime, and that's sorta expected as Tank has never been known to be good on the ground. I was hoping Yoshida would keep the fight standing as he's shown he can throw punches with the best of them in the past.
Wanderlei Silva LOST to Ricardo Arona in the semi finals of the GP! This was not really surprising as Arona has shown alot of skill and improvement in the GP fights I've seen him in. The problem here was that he won by judges decision after two rounds. I'm scratching my head as to why up until now all the GP fights were three rounds, and now the semi finals were just 2 rounds. Arona was said to have been very dominant over the "Axe Murderer", so who knows what results a third round would have yielded.
Emelianenko Fedor successfully defended his PRIDE Heavyweight Title against Mirko CroCop Filopovic in the semi-main event of the night. Fedor won by judges decision after 3 rounds. I'm guessing Fedor kept CroCop grounded to avoid his deadly kicks.
Despite pulling off a huge upset in the semis, Ricardo Arona fell to Mauricio Shogun Rua in the finals of the GP. Shogun himself has improved vastly in PRIDE and this fight should be interesting to check out.
And yes, I will be checking out this event as ASTRO will be airing the US PPV version of the show in September. At least I think it's this show since the next PRIDE show isn't until the next Bushido show on 9/25.

PRIDE FC Middleweight GP Finals 8/28/2005
Saitama Super Arena - 47,269 Fans
Reserve GP Match: Kazuhiro Nakamura defeated Igor Vovchanchyn after 2R by a 3-0 judges' decision.
GP Semi-Finals: Ricardo Arona defeated Vanderlei Silva after 2R by a 3-0 judges' decision.
GP Semi-Finals: Mauricio Shogun defeated Alistair Overeem in the 1R in 6 minutes, 42 seconds by KO from mount punches.
Fabricio Werdum defeated Roman Zentsov in the 1R in 4 minutes, 1 second with a cross-arm scissors hold for the submission.
Hidehiko Yoshida defeated Tank Abott in the 1R in 7 minutes, 12 seconds with the katahajime (choke sleeper).
PRIDE Heavyweight Title Match: Emelianenko Fedor defeated Mirko Cro Cop after 3R by a 3-0 judges' decision.
2005 Middleweight GP Finals: Mauricio "Shogun" Rua defeated Ricardo Arona in the 1R in 2 minutes, 53 seconds by KO.