Luis Gustavo wins RIZIN lightweight title with first-round knockout at RIZIN 53

RIZIN 53 took place with Luis Gustavo capturing the lightweight championship by knocking out Ilkhom Nazimov in the first round. The main card featured multiple finishes, including Ryo Takagi's first-round knockout of Kaiwen Li and Shinobu Ota's second-round hand triangle submission of Yuto Hokamura. Ryan Cafaro secured a third-round guillotine victory over Koyomi Matsushima, while several other bouts ended via submission including triangle chokes, rear-naked chokes, and arm bars. The event also included kickboxing contests alongside the MMA bouts. Ren Hiramoto and Koji Tanaka fought to a draw in a special standup-only ruleset bout with no weight limits.