The Fall of the House of Gracie

Hat Tip to Sherdog for this story. It's a story many people dont know and thought it should be posted here as well. Again, this is from Sherdog.

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The Build Up​

Evening descends on August 28, 2002.
Over 71,000 people gather at the Tokyo National Stadium to see the greatest Mixed Martial Arts card of the time.
A MMA record that still stands untouched to this day by tens of thousands.​

Combat sport super powers PRIDE and K-1 had put aside their differences, in the spirit of the sport, to put on a co-promoted event for the ages. Originally planned as a one-off Super Event, it was billed in Japan simply and appropriately as: Dynamite!

Featuring the top global stars from around the world, it was made up of various matches under Pride, K1, and grappling rules. The elite fighters from around the world included Kazushi Sakuraba, Royce Gracie, Hidehiko Yoshida, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Bob Sapp, Mirko CroCop, Wanderlei Silva, Ernesto Hoost, Semmy Schilt, and Jerome Le Banner.

Starting off with a blistering 76 second violent head-kick-and-punches stoppage at the hands (and feet) of the emerging Brazilian superstar Wanderlei Silva, the night was turning out to be all that was expected.

Later, in arguably one of the single greatest comeback victories in sporting history, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is able to survive a horrific beating at the hands of 350lbs mega-star Bob Sapp, and get a miracle submission.

Which lead into the super-fight carrying the honour of two countries, two martial arts, and two champions.

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The Fight​

Royce Gracie was the crown gem that PRIDE had stolen away from their North American cage-fighting rival UFC.
As such, the entire Gracie family was given extreme royalties, requests, and demands, which usually consisted of certain rules and time limits as they wanted.

Hidehiko Yoshida was Japan's beloved combat champion. Ruling over one of their national level sports, he was a multiple gold-medal Judo champion across Asia, World, and Olympic levels.

Gracie, considering his and Yoshida's strengths and weaknesses, demands the fight be under custom BJJ rules to suit him:
-His Judoka opponent would not be allowed any of Judo's signature throws and slams.
-No strikes were to be allowed when Royce pulled guard and took the fight to the mat.

Despite the tilted table, Yoshida accepts, and the fight takes place.

Both choosing to fight wearing their respective traditional grappling Gi's, most of the first round consists of Yoshida looking out of place by not being allowed to throw or slam his smaller opponent, Gracie pulling guard, and positional jockeying while Gracie concentrated on leg locks.

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Midway through the 10 minute first round, Yoshida finds a way to get around the no-Judo rules.
This is the turning point of the match, and the end of Royce Gracie being considered a top level combatant in MMA.

With 4:14 left in Round 1, after Gracie pulled guard, Yoshida grabs his collars and picks him up off the ground, slamming him down hard.

Caught off guard by this, Gracie is forced to finally stop attacking, and defends by grabbing Yoshida's collar and pant leg to avoid any more slams. After some brief Gi control, Yoshida ends up passing to half guard.

With Yoshida beginning to work for a kimura, Royce is forced to go on the defensive and gets distracted, leading to Hidehiko then going for the finish.

Quickly and silently adjusting the right sleeve of his gi to give him more slack, Yoshida transitions from the feint kimura to a crushing Judo Gi-choke, the Ezekiel Choke. Using both of his own wrist collars, Yoshida uses his weight and leverage to scissor his gi and forearms across Gracie's throat, a quick and devastating choke.

It's fully locked in within 5 seconds of the switch.
5 seconds later, Gracie's arms go limp, feet stop struggling, and body goes still.
5 seconds after that, Yoshida yells to the ref that Royce is unconscious.
15 seconds from start to finish, the referee stops the fight due to technical submission.

The world renowned grappling champion Royce Gracie had been submitted.
On the biggest stage in the world, in front of 71,000 people, with his family at ring side.
Brazilian JiuJitsu had been defeated by Judo. Choked out cold no less, by a Gi.

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The Aftermath​

One of Hidehiko Yoshida's greatest moments lasted under 10 seconds.

Outraged at the result, the entire Gracie family stormed the ring. Surrounding and picking up Royce, they began to carry him around and hold his arm up in victory, somehow claiming that Yoshida never won because Royce didn't tap.

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Chaos ensued, Royce dragged Yoshida by the gi over to the ropes in front of the judges table, demanding he tell them that he was never submitted.
After the Gracie's futile protest, Royce quickly stormed out of the ring, Helio and the rest of the family not far behind.
Later backstage, the Gracie's demand it be turned into a No Contest, and an immediate rematch be booked (with different rules for the next time).
If not, the Gracie family would pull themselves from Pride FC, and never fight for them again.

Pride, desperate to keep the Gracie family with them, accepted their demands, the fight was turned into a No Contest, and a lack-lustre rematch and Draw resulted a year later.

Royce Gracie's career fades out, managing only 4 matches more, with only two wins.
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And thus the story lay still to this day.
Forgotten in time, scratched from records, and erased from FightFinder.
A bard's song, of the fall of the house of Gracie.

 

Not really anything to do with rules tho. The UFC was basically created by the Gracies to showcase their style, so of course they came out looking good. But it got bigger than the Gracies.