Get Cut Mixed Martial Arts

Artesia

Alamogordo

Belen

Aztec

Edgewood

Hobbs

Jaconita

Las Cruces

Los Alamos

Los Lunas

Rio Rancho

Santa Fe

Silver City

Taos

Tijeras

Ranchos De Taos

Española

Gallup

Albuquerque

Cedar Crest

Portales

Farmington

Mexico City

New Mexico's BJJ story runs directly through Greg Jackson. In 1992, Jackson — a Albuquerque native who grew up wrestling and studying judo — opened a martial arts school out of Rio Grande High School and built his own hybrid grappling system called Gaidojutsu from catch wrestling, judo, and striking. By 2000 it had converted into a full MMA academy, and by 2005, when Diego Sanchez — an Albuquerque-raised wrestler with a BJJ black belt — won the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter, the city's reputation as a serious combat sports center was set. Jackson later partnered with striking coach Mike Winkeljohn in 2007, creating Jackson-Wink MMA Academy, the facility that would become synonymous with elite grappling training in the American Southwest.

The technical BJJ infrastructure behind Jackson-Wink's fighters came largely from one man: Roberto "Tussa" Alencar, a Brazilian-born black belt under Carlinhos Gracie and one of the most decorated grapplers in the gym's history. A four-time No Gi World Champion and 2009 No Gi Absolute World Champion, Alencar settled in Albuquerque and established Gracie Barra New Mexico while simultaneously serving as head BJJ coach at Jackson-Wink. His fingerprints are on the ground games of Jon Jones, who has trained at the facility since 2009, Holly Holm — whom Alencar promoted to blue belt — and Carlos Condit, among others. The Gracie Barra lineage he brought to Albuquerque now runs through multiple locations in the metro, with a second flagship on the city's west side and a third on the northeast corridor near the university district.

Albuquerque carries the heaviest concentration of the state's academies and draws the most serious competitors, but New Mexico's second and third cities are not afterthoughts. The Carlos Machado lineage — one of the original Brazilian families to establish themselves in the American market during the 1990s — has a strong presence in Albuquerque through the New Mexico Jiujitsu Academy, which operates under head instructor Armando Sanchez. Carlson Gracie's lineage lands at Coyote BJJ, run by Professor Daniel Souza. Santa Fe, about an hour north, has eleven gyms of its own including a Gracie Barra affiliate that draws students from the surrounding mountain communities. Las Cruces, anchored near the Texas border, has its own developed scene, with Kings Jiu Jitsu led by Professor Wes, a Gracie black belt with two decades of teaching experience who returned to the city after fourteen years running programs in Albuquerque.

The culture across the state reflects its MMA roots. Training tends to be hard-nosed and wrestling-influenced — New Mexico produces strong high school wrestlers, and many athletes arrive on the mat already knowing how to fight for position. The gi and no-gi tracks coexist but the Jackson-Wink model, which built its reputation on functional grappling applied under pressure, has shaped how many coaches in the state think about ground work. Competition is active: the American Grappling Federation hosts annual state championships, and NAGA runs regular events in Albuquerque drawing competitors from across the region.

MatMade lists 101 jiu jitsu gyms across New Mexico, with the bulk clustered in Albuquerque's sprawling metro but solid representation in Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho, and Roswell. For anyone relocating to the state or visiting for training, the depth is real — multiple legitimate black belts, clean lineages tracing directly to the Gracie family's various branches, and a competitive ecosystem that has been pressure-tested by decades of producing fighters who compete at the highest levels of the sport.

New Mexico

BJJ & Martial Arts in Artesia, New Mexico