At the time of his bout with Sakuraba, Renzo's only loss in 10 bouts was a closely contested decision to Sakuraba's former UWFi stablemate and rival, Kiyoshi Tamura while Maurice Smith, Oleg Taktarov and Abu Dhabi champion Sanae Kikuta numbered amongst his victims. Renzo's stylistic differences from his cousins were in evidence from the outset of his contest against Sakuraba, as he pressed the pace of the bout with a variety of kicks and punches, although few connected. Sakuraba responded in kind, and the striking seemed to go to a stalemate. Throwing his wrestling into the equation, Sakuraba timed a number of double and single leg takedowns against Renzo's flurries from where he 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. Then, performing his own reversion, 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.