Back when this happened there were pictures from alternative angles that showed that Royce wasn't in real trouble and the choke wasn't fully on. Yoshida basically told the ref to stop the fight because he was out and the ref complied. Many think it was because there was desperation to make Yoshida the next Japanese star in Pride. Who knows. Plus, I'm not sure because it was so long ago, but wasn't that a special rules fight where the ref was not allowed to stop the fight? I know the rematch had special rules (which backfired on Royce because he mopped the floor with Yoshida), but I thought the first one did too. Anyway, miss the Pride days!