Luis Gustavo captured the RIZIN lightweight championship by knocking out Ilkhom Nazimov in the first round at RIZIN 53. The event featured multiple finishes, including Ryo Takagi's first-round knockout of Kaiven Lee and Shinobu Ota's second-round arm triangle victory over Yuto Hokamura. In other action, the bout between Ren Hiramoto and Koji Tanaka ended in a draw under special stand-up rules with no weight limit. The card also saw victories by submission from Daiki Tsubota, Ryoma Shishimoto, and Jo Hiramoto, among others. Several kickboxing matches rounded out the event, with Yushi, Hinata Kitano, and Shota all winning by unanimous decision.
