Marcelo is a different breed, Ricco never had a chance and I think he knew it. The beauty of this fight to me is the way the "small guy" controlled the whole fight from a "disadvantaged position", he controlled outside factors such as the crowd, and then the mental dominance leading to Ricco losing his composure. Marcelo built his game off the arm drag and Ricco couldn't do anything to avoid it, even knowing it was coming.
Since this thread started I've been running the notion of dealing with this question by using a triad composed of the characteristics of strength, skill, and size. Absent though is speed which I am having trouble reconciling the fact that it isn't there... I have been thinking about how different levels of each affect the whole in regards to an opponent. It's merely a mental exercise but this fight Southnarc posted is a really great example of high skill defeating the sum of the other two qualities taken in the context of my model. Of course we don't always get to choose our opponent, but remember Ricco didn't either and Marcelo went absolute knowing he was one of the smaller players in the brackets.
This isn't a real fight of course, but I still think a lot can be taken from this fight and used in preparation for conflict. For me it's the complete mastery of technique and willingness to test it at the highest level against the best. This should be a familiar concept if we're honest about things....