alternately attempted to cartwheel past Gracie's guard, malign his legs with kicks from the standing position and even attack with a baseball slide. However, Renzo's defensive skills from bottom nullified the entire gamut of Sakuraba's offensive attempts, and after using an entry derived from the De la Riva guard, he took the wrestler's back, pressing him against the turnbuckle as mere seconds remained in the battle. With time ticking away, Sakuraba locked in a kimura from the back and spun around, flipping Renzo to the canvas even as he wrenched his arm behind his back. Like Royler and Helio before him, Renzo refused to submit to the hold despite his elbow being snapped prior to hitting the ground and, even as the referee stopped the contest due to the injury, which awarded victory to Sakuraba. Renzo took the microphone and, before the 35,000 fans assembled at the Seibu Dome, stated that Sakuraba was "the Japanese version of the Gracie family". Renzo has since referred to the bout as his proudest moment in mixed martial arts. Similarly, years later Gracie called Sakuraba "his hero" and remembered their match as "one of the biggest lessons he learned in his life". Commentator Stephen Quadros stated too: "if any fans still doubted the abilities of Kazushi Sakuraba in MMA competition, they are now silent." Ryan Gracie, who had fought on the same card and emerged victorious, jumped into the ring issued a challenge to Sakuraba, which was accepted. Vitor Belfort also demanded a rematch, although Sakuraba had stated not to be interested in rematches due to his interest in facing Frank Shamrock, Tito Ortiz and Dan Henderson. The fight between Sakuraba and Ryan was scheduled to happen at Pride 12. Due to a shoulder injury, the fight was limited to a single 10-minute round, where Ryan's spirited efforts were generally stymied and controlled by Sakuraba, who noticeably avoided attacks on his younger opponent's injured arm. Despite it, Kazushi later argued in an interview that he believed Ryan would have been faking the entire injury in order to catch him off guard. Nonetheless, the Japanese threw some of his usual antics during the match, at some points delivering chops to Ryan's rear while controlling him. Following the win against Ryan, Sakuraba was slated to battle Pancrase veteran Bas Rutten, but the latter declined and was replaced by Brazilian muay thai specialist Wanderlei Silva. Sakuraba was