From Dad Life To Fight Life: Nico Cornejo’s Long Journey To His ONE Championship Debut In Denver
Nico “The Steel City Kid” Cornejo has taken the scenic route to reach the world’s largest martial arts organization, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
The Colorado native will make his ONE Championship debut on September 6 in U.S. primetime at ONE 168: Denver when he squares off with Singaporean-American rising star Adrian “The Phenom” Lee in a highly anticipated lightweight MMA contest at Ball Arena.
Before he steps into the Circle for the first time and competes in his home state, Cornejo spoke to onefc.com about his winding road into the world of elite mixed martial arts.
An Athlete From The Beginning
Cornejo recalls a rough-and-tumble childhood spent outside riding bikes, exploring, participating in any sport he could find, and collecting plenty of bumps, bruises, and scars along the way.
He explained:
“I was definitely a troublemaker growing up, got into a lot of a lot of trouble. Thank God, nothing really seriously illegal, but yeah, I was more outgoing, camping, liked to be outdoors, riding my bike. I never liked to be home. I was just roaming the neighborhood as much as I could.”
Given his endless energy as a child, it’s no surprise he excelled in sports. And, while he competed in a wide variety of athletics, it was wrestling that captured most of the youngster’s attention.
However, despite his prodigious athletic gifts and innate knack for wrestling, Cornejo was never able to fully commit himself to the sport, as he became a father at just 16 years old.
He said:
“Growing up, you know, elementary school, middle school, I did very well. And then when I hit high school, I was a typical jock athlete, you know, football, wrestling. I even did swimming for two years. I did track for one year.
“The competition for wrestling, I wish I would have been focused more on it. However, I did have a job and my main focus was making money and I was a young father. I was a teenage father. So I had to provide for my son on the way.”
Growing Up Fast
The birth of Cornejo’s son put his athletic dreams on hold as he shifted his priorities to being the best parent he could be.
Fatherhood, he says, forced him to mature quicker than other teenagers.
Cornejo explained:
“Being a young father, you had to grow up fast. Really fast.
“Having a kid at a young age definitely matured me as an adult – having my priorities, knowing what my priorities needed to be, and being there for my kids.”
After high school, the young father put wrestling, competition, and athletics in the rearview mirror, focusing instead on family life. Along the way, he added two more children – another boy and one girl.
Children weren’t the only things Cornejo added to his life. His weight ballooned up to nearly 250 pounds. It wasn’t until 2019, after more than a decade away from wrestling and athletics, that he made the fateful decision to dive into MMA.
The Colorado native said:
“I had a lot of reserve left in me, and in 2019 is when I decided to make that journey into the MMA world. I’ve been rocking and rolling ever since. I’ve lost close to almost 100 pounds. My heaviest I got was 245 pounds. That much weight on a small stature like me, you know, that’s a lot. I was able to focus on my diet along with my boys.”
All For His Children
Now 34 years old, Cornejo doesn’t regret the time he took away from sports, knowing that he was obligated first and foremost to his children.
He said:
“That time I took, you know, it was all for my boys and I made sure my boys knew that I was there for them. I didn’t do any form of training. I was in that dad mode.”
Beginning in 2019 and through 2022, Cornejo compiled a perfect amateur MMA record, earning “The Steel City Kid” moniker thanks to his youthful looks. In 2023, he turned pro and reeled off a pair of stoppage victories to garner the attention of ONE Championship.
The turning point in his life came before that, in 2018. After going through a painful divorce with his children’s mother, he realized that if he wanted to take care of his kids, he had to first take care of himself.
Cornejo said:
“That’s when I decided it’s my turn to take care of me. And my kids are taken care of still. I kind of just went through that process of – I need to take care of myself because if I’m not taking care of myself, how can I take care of my kids?”
That decision would prove wise, as Cornejo is now in the best shape of his life and on the precipice of his ONE debut.
As hard as life can be for a professional fighter, he says that his biggest challenge is fatherhood:
“My expectations of being a father is still challenging to this day. You know, making sure that I am a good life partner to my fiancee. I want to be a great husband and don’t want to make the same mistakes that I did in my first marriage. I know I’m a great person. I know I’m a good person within my community, with our youth program and stuff like that and. I just always make sure that my kids are well taken care of and that’s the daily struggle that I face almost every day – making sure that I am the best father that I can be.”
Ready To Perform In ONE
For “The Steel City Kid,” joining ONE Championship and performing on its massive global platform represents a dream come true.
He remembers the flood of emotions he felt when he signed with the world’s largest martial arts organization.
Cornejo said:
“I was taken aback. I really was choked up on words. Excited. Nervous. Scared. You know, happy. And just everything that I’ve put in, my blood, sweat, and tears. Literally, blood, sweat, and tears. To finally have someone take notice, I never thought ONE would, but man, I am blessed.”
When Cornejo takes on “The Phenom” at ONE 168, he’ll be backed by a raucous Colorado crowd hungry to see its hometown hero score a big win.
He’s well aware of the high expectations surrounding him, but he’s embracing the pressure and is confident he’ll deliver a strong performance when it matters most:
“I am the first fighter out of Pueblo to be signed to a major organization like ONE. I’ve already got a lot riding on me. I’ve already got a lot of eyes looking up to me, not only in my kids. I got our youth kids in our gym excited. I got their parents who already bought tickets for the fight. So I got a lot of eyes on me, and one thing I can say for certain is I do perform under pressure. I perform well under pressure and I’m no stranger to big lights on me, so I’m just excited.”
