Luis Gustavo captured the RIZIN lightweight championship by knocking out Ilkhom Nazimov in the first round at RIZIN 53. In other action on the card, Ren Hiramoto and Koji Tanaka fought to a draw in a special rules standup bout with no weight limit. Ryo Takagi knocked out Kaiwen Li in the first round, while Shinobu Ota submitted Yuto Hokamura with an arm triangle in round two. In the women's division, Keito Oyama defeated Katie Perez by unanimous decision. Additional notable finishes included Sho Patrick Usami's first-round knockout of Tatsuya Spike, and Ryan Cafaro's third-round guillotine victory over Koichi Matsushima.
