"Steel City Kid" to Represent Pueblo in the MMA Cage When ONE Championship Visits Denver

Nico Cornejo grew up playing sports to keep his head on straight during a childhood that "didn’t have everything," but included a lot of moving from place to place.

But after the Pueblo native learned he would become a father as a teenager, sports and other hobbies took a back seat.

“I became a dad at a very young age,” Cornejo says. “My oldest son was born two weeks after I graduated high school, so I had to grow up. I had to be a responsible parent real fast.”

For the next decade, Cornejo devoted himself to coaching his children in sports and giving them stability he hadn’t had. But as his children got older, he realized he could take time for himself, and in 2019 he began training in mixed martial arts. Now 2-0 as a professional, Cornejo will be fighting on the biggest stage of his career, and he'll be on home turf.

On September 6, the 34-year-old will compete for ONE Championship at Ball Arena as one of the highlights of a competitive fight card for ONE 168: Denver, streaming on Amazon Prime. Headquartered in Singapore, ONE Championship is the world’s largest martial arts organization, comprising multiple combat sports such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai and MMA. When Cornejo got the call from his coach that ONE wanted him to compete, he could hardly believe it.

Although Colorado is home to a handful of notable MMA gyms, Cornejo is the only Coloradan fighting on the Denver card. But that isn't from lack of talent or toughness in the Rockies, according to him.

“I just hope that this is a stepping stone for future fighters and for them to see that, Colorado, man, you don't mess with us," Cornejo says. "We're tough."

ONE Championship came to Colorado last year for its inaugural United States event in 2023 at the now-shuttered 1STBANK Center in Westminster.

“The fans in Denver are extremely knowledgeable and passionate, and I knew right away that we had to come back,” says ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong. "We were also fortunate to develop great relationships with the Colorado Athletic Commission, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, and other local partners.”

Cornejo competes in ONE's lightweight division, which ranges from 146 to 155 pounds. He originally went by "The Kid," because he looks extremely young when clean-shaven and often gets called that by loved ones. But during his second pro fight, he was given a new name.

“In my last pro fight, in December, the commentator on that card actually called me 'The Steel City Kid,'” Cornejo recalls. He loved the tie-in to Pueblo’s historic nickname and connection to the steel industry, and has stuck with it since.

Cornejo has mostly worked for local government, spending a decade as a corrections officer. In 2023 he began working for the City of Pueblo's maintenance department.

“I'm grateful for that job, because my boss is awesome,” Cornejo says. “He loves what I do. A lot of the guys at work love what I do, and they're going to be watching September 6, so they're all excited. My boss definitely works with me to have the time to do what I need to.”

It’s not just his job Cornejo has to balance. He now has five children — three from his previous marriage, and two “bonus kids” who came along with his fiancée, Rikki Albillar. Their busy household has high-schoolers, a middle-schooler and an elementary-school student, so there are plenty of games and events to attend, he says.

Albillar does all she can to make sure Cornejo keeps up his MMA training.

“I tell him all the time, ‘I feel like you did life backward. You were a young father and a provider.’ …He devoted the time that he could have had for himself to do this, but gave it to his kids to help mold them into athletes, and I feel like this is his time,” she says.

During training camp for a professional fight, Cornejo spends six days a week at the gym, devoting several hours per day to training.

Cornejo trains at Warrior Built MMA in Pueblo with help from Carlos Machado Jiu-Jitsu, which is based in Texas. Practices are a mix of technique drills and cardio, with intensive cardio workouts at the end of the day to simulate pushing through the end of a fight.

Cornejo wrestled in high school, so he uses that background to his advantage.

“We like to say in our gym, ‘Don't let the judges decide the fight,’” Cornejo says. “We decide the fight.”

Major sports books haven't released betting lines for September 6 bouts yet, but Cornejo may be the underdog in the eyes of longtime MMA viewers.

His fight will be against Adrian Lee, whose nickname is "the Phenom." At 1-0, Lee is just eighteen and the youngest of the Lee family, which has a strong reputation in ONE Championship. His sister Angela and brother Christian both won MMA championships in the ONE promotion. Lee's other sister, Victoria, was a popular and talented fighter as well before taking her own life in 2022.

Cornejo isn’t much for trash talk and says he has a healthy respect for Lee. However, he sees a difference between them in pressure and expectations: Lee has shoes to fill while Cornejo is unburdened by family pedigree. Both athletes will be fighting to honor their families, however.

“I don't want [Albillar] to work anymore,” Cornejo says of his fiancée. “It's her turn to relax, so hopefully this will open a doorway for me to to focus full-time on fighting and not have to worry about financials. I do this for her, for my kids.”

Albillar and Cornejo were friends before they became involved romantically; she even purchased a pay-per-view slot to watch one of his early fights.

“I always joke about being a groupie, but I've honestly felt like one of his biggest cheerleaders, and this means everything,” she says. “I'm going to be cheering him on, the same way I was back then, as I would any other spar night. I'm in the front row of cheering him on, because I do see the potential in him. I've always told him, even outside of a relationship, I would still be cheering for him.”

Cornejos hopes that one day, other young Coloradans will see his journey as evidence that they can achieve their dreams, even if they are overlooked or have to put everything on hold for a while.

Win or lose, he's going to have plenty of family and friends in the audience on September 6.

“It's an overwhelming good feeling, the amount of support that I've been getting here,” he says. “To see that a lot of people are rooting for you, that is definitely a good thing.”