Every city and town has those one or two things that they’re known for, regardless of whether that’s just within the region or on a global scale, like how Philadelphia is known for Rocky and cheesesteaks or the way everyone in the St. Lawrence Seaway region knows that Cornwall, Ontario, has a funky smell because of the paper mill.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, is known for being a breeding ground for mixed martial artists, both of the “born and raised” variety and transplants that select the hard-scrabble city flanked by the Sandia Mountains as their home base as they chase their MMA dreams.