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Former UFC champ Nicco Montaño wins local pitch event
Nicco Montaño, far right, is a former UFC champion. In December, she won a pitch competition at an event hosted by New Mexico Community Capital. As part of her victory, she received $2,000 from Wells Fargo, the sponsor of the event.
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Nicco Montaño made headlines when she became the inaugural women’s flyweight champion in the UFC. Six years later, she’s making headlines for a different reason.
Montaño in December participated — and won first place — in a pitch competition put together by New Mexico Community Capital, a local nonprofit focused on supporting Indigenous businesses and startups. Wells Fargo sponsored the event, held on Dec. 15 at the Lobo Rainforest building, and gave money to winners at the pitch event.
The event, dubbed the IndigiMixer, saw Montaño take home $2,000 for her video pitch on teaching children self-defense and anti-bullying tactics. The pitch event saw Montaño and others create videos, where they pitched their businesses and were judged by a panel.
Montaño, 35, said she plans to use the money to continue her work in training the younger generation — which she’s done in places across the country, including Alaska. She told the Journal that mixed martial arts, or MMA, is an outlet for children to communicate their feelings “so that they feel confident.”
She said she especially likes to focus on teenagers and Indigenous women, because of the high rate at which they go missing.
The second-place winner at the pitch event was Shannon Jones, the founder of Indigenous Magic, an art business; Jones took home $1,500. The third-place winner was Contreta Endwarrior Kevin Cheresposy of NTV Gainz; they took home $1,000.
Wells Fargo’s partnership with New Mexico Community Capital builds on the bank’s Invest Native initiative, which it launched in January 2023. The Initiative puts a focus on supporting an equitable future for Indigenous communities. As part of the effort, the bank in October awarded $2.6 million to eight Indigenous nonprofits based in the state.
“I’m born and raised here in Albuquerque, New Mexico and for me, the work that we do goes beyond just what you see in our traditional branches,” said Joe Trimble, a VP and small business leader for Wells Fargo in New Mexico. “A lot of my colleagues and I are extremely passionate about being in the community and really putting our work to action.”
