Luis Gustavo knocks out Nazimov to claim RIZIN lightweight title

Luis Gustavo captured the RIZIN lightweight championship with a first-round knockout of Ilkhom Nazimov at RIZIN 53. The card featured multiple finishes, including Ryo Takagi's first-round knockout of Kaiven Lee and Shinobu Ota's second-round arm triangle submission of Yuto Hokamura. In a special ruleset standup bout with no weight limit, Ren Hiramoto and Koji Tanaka fought to a draw. Ryan Cafaro submitted Koyomi Matsushima with a guillotine in the third round, while Daiki Tsubota caught Genji Umeno with a triangle in round one. Several other bouts ended by submission or decision across the full card.