it was billed as a mixed martial arts fight or a professional wrestling match. It is not included in Takada's fight record on the Sherdog website, though is in his PRIDE official record. The match saw Otsuka landing a fisherman suplex before Takada locked a rear naked choke for the tap out. PRIDE Grand Prix and competition against strikers Takada competed in the PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Opening Round, where he was pitted against his second opponent in the Gracie family, Rickson's brother Royce, who returned from a hiatus after his career in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). At the beginning of the match, Royce immediately clinched Takada and pulled guard, but action stopped right there, as none of the fighters followed with any action. For the rest of the 15 minute match, Takada lied on Royce's guard while Royce held him there, occasionally hitting heel kicks to the kidneys and trying gi chokes. After the end of the bout, decision was given to Royce. Takada visibly limped to his corner, which was later explained as Takada having fought the bout with a heel injury. The fight was negatively received by the crowd, who booed Takada. It drew comparisons to Ken Shamrock's "The Dance in Detroit" bout against Dan Severn in April 1995 and particularly to Shamrock's own bout against Royce Gracie at the same year. Takada's next MMA event participation was in Pride 11, where he fought against Vovchanchyn. Having trained especially for the match with his own trainee Kazushi Sakuraba and K-1 veteran Masaaki Satake, Takada was acknowledged to have improved his performance. Vovchanchyn overpowered Takada in the second round, when he caught him with a counterpunch and gained full mount after a restart. Vovchanchyn landed hard strikes, making Takada tap out. At Pride 17, Takada faced Cro Cop, who was debuting in mixed martial arts; as such, the fight had six shorter rounds and no judges. During the match, Takada broke his foot, forcing him to depend solely on defensive tactics. He spent the rest of the match sitting on the mat, fruitlessly goading Cro Cop to engage him on the ground until the end of the bout. Reception to this strategy was negative. His next fight was again against a kickboxer, Mike Bernardo, as part of Inoki's team in the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event. The fight saw virtually no offense, as both fighters acted with excessive caution to