[2][3] Sakuraba, a professional wrestler of the shoot-style kind (a mixture of catch wrestling, judo, sambo, muay thai and other arts), dominated Royler both standing and on the ground and defeated him by the way of Kimura lock, following up with a challenge to Rickson himself.

[3] The Gracie side argued Royler's loss should not be counted, as it had happened by referee stoppage, an action that went directly against the special ruleset they had requested for that fight.

[2] In order to clear this out and issue a challenge, undefeated UFC champion and Royler's and Rickson's brother Royce agreed to sign up with PRIDE,[1] which had previously been in contact with him for an abandoned matchup with Mark Kerr.

Their representative Rorion Gracie called for an unlimited number of 15 minute rounds, no judges, no referee stoppages, and only knockout, submission or towel throw as ways to win.

[6] Sakuraba found these demands inappropriate,[4] while Royce defended himself by underlining the role of his family in the history of MMA and by pointing out he was already at a weight disadvantage in the match (actually just 7 lbs).

[4] Eventually, Sakuraba accepted,[7] and characteristically joked about wearing a diaper to the match in prevision of its unlimited length, as well as learning ventriloquism to deceive the referee into believing Gracie had submitted.

[4][7] However, upon finding Royce absent from the rule meeting the day before the match, he engaged in a brief trash talking, criticizing the Gracie family and accusing them of hypocrisy and cowardice.

[7] Unlike Royce, who chose to wear a full Brazilian jiu-jitsu gi for the fight, the Japanese wore his orange wrestling tights.

Knowing the strikes lacked power to inflict damage,[10] Sakuraba spent the time looking directly to a cameraman outside the ring and smiling to him, which drew cheers and laughs from the crowd.

[11] Referee Yuji Shimada separated them and restarted the fight, but the situation repeated itself, with Kazushi pursuing submissions from behind and Royce keeping himself active with short strikes.

Finally finding an opening, the Brazilian scored several punches, but Sakuraba's control on his jacket shut his offense off, at one point even pulling the cloth over Royce's shoulders to confuse him while trying to cover his head with it.

Taken by surprise, the Brazilian initially opted to remain on the mat to stay safe, although he returned to his feet when Sakuraba started kicking his legs as he had done in the fight against Royler.

[1] He besieged Royce's closed guard and landed ground and pound in the form of punches and Mongolian chops, which forced Gracie to open his legs.

Gracie was able to slow the pace standing by ramming Sakuraba against a corner, but by this point the Brazilian was too exhausted and worn to follow up with a takedown attempt or a try to capture his back.

Sensing the final of the bout was approaching, Gracie tried takedowns and guard pulls in a last attempt, only for Sakuraba to block all of them and keep punishing his legs with kicks.

[11] During the rest, Royce sat on his corner stool and informed his teammates he was unable to walk because the damage to his legs (one of his femurs would be found to be fractured due to the accumulated kicks),[13] and after some deliberation, finally Rorion Gracie threw the towel to concede the fight.

[15] These consideration have been echoed through the years, with Brain Knapp of Sherdog calling the fight "its historical significance off the charts",[16] Mike Sloan from the same website placing it as the second top mixed martial arts bout ever,[17] Pedro Olavarria from Fightland comparing it to the "Fight of the Century" between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali,[18] and Jonathan Snowden stating in SB Nation that it "changed MMA history forever".

[13] In his book UFC's Ultimate Warriors: The Top 10, mixed martial arts insider Jeremy Wall commented: "No fight in MMA history, before or since, has come close to that length and still remained an exciting bout.

[6] However, attention was put in the symbolic passing of the torch between Gracie, the original mixed martial arts icon and popularizer of groundfighting, and Sakuraba, the new generation fighter and emissary of a well-rounded fighting game.

The announcement met a mixed reception,[23] as while Gracie had fought only 4 bouts in the hiatus, Sakuraba had added a number of 21 fights to his record and was considered to be in significantly deficient health due to their toll.

[25] The Brazilian fighter had cross-trained in muay thai for his previous fight against Matt Hughes at UFC 60,[26] while the Japanese had polished his own skills in said art in the Chute Boxe camp after his bouts against CB member Wanderlei Silva.

[27] Choosing to remain on the mat, the Brazilian defended with vigorous punches and upkicks when Sakuraba threatened with an ankle lock,[23] so the Japanese resorted to kick his legs in trademark fashion,[27] an exchange that drew boos from the crowd.

[28] When the Japanese fighter finally acceded to engage Gracie on the ground, he passed his guard with some punches and captured his back on the side, forcing Royce to stand up.

[28][27] Gracie stood up, but Sakuraba threatened him again with his own Kimura attempt, so the Brazilian threw strikes at his head, although the wrestler managed to block most of them with his glove and shoulder.

[28][27] After the match, judges Richard Bertrand, Nelson Hamilton and Cecil Peoples scored the contest as 30-27, 29-28, and 29-28, all three for Gracie, who was thus declared winner by unanimous decision.

Not only the fight was considered "lackluster"[29][30][26] or even "embarrassing"[31] by a number of reviewers, the very decision of the judges to award Gracie the victory instead of Sakuraba garnered a heated controversy.

[34] While Nandrolone occurs naturally in the human body in amounts between 2 ng/mL and 6 ng/mL, both of Gracie's samples provided a level of over 50 ng/mL, ruling out the possibility of a false positive.

[34] Nevertheless, the revelation impacted even more negatively on the sport's perception of the Brazilian fighter and his achievement,[36][37] eventually becoming one of the top steroid scandals in MMA history.