Luis Gustavo became the new RIZIN lightweight champion 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 submission of Yuto Hokamura. Sho Patrick Usami scored a first-round knockout over Tatsuya Spike, while Ryan Cafaro secured a third-round guillotine over Koyomi Matsushima. The card also included kickboxing bouts and several other submission victories. The special-rules bout between Ren Hiramoto and Koji Tanaka ended in a draw.
