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Lock, stock and fighting apparel, 18-year-old Nick Gjelaj left his home in Rockland County, New York and headed for Albuquerque.
His sole reason: a chance to train at the Duke City’s renowned Jackson-Wink MMA Academy.
He’s still here.
“Yeah, it’s the classic pack-your-bags-and-never-look-back story,” Gjelaj, now 24, said during a recent interview at Albuquerque’s Kingdom Muay Thai. “Never moved back, never looked back, just started fighting and living over here.”
Friday, Gjelaj weighed in at 140.6 pounds for his fight against Robert Mozisek (142 pounds) of San Antonio, Texas on a pro-am Muay Thai card at Expo New Mexico‘s Manuel Lujan Exhibition Complex. It will be Gjelaj’s pro Muay Thai debut, but by no means his first Muay Thai fight.
“I’ve got about 40 Muay Thai fights as an amateur,” he said.
Gjelaj, fighting out of Jackson-Wink, had a 5-3 amateur record in MMA and is 1-2 as a pro in the cage. Muay Thai, he said, is his preferred combat-sports discipline.
“I can juggle both (MMA and Muay Thai),” he said. “Whatever I can make a career. So if that’s MMA or if that’s Muay Thai or if it’s both, that’s perfect.
“(But) I love Muay Thai. My MMA style is centered around my Muay Thai, so that’s my best weapon, anyway.”
Saturday’s card is the first pro Muay Thai event of any consequence in the area since Lion Fight, a Las Vegas, Nevada-based Muay Thai promotional firm, staged a card at Route 66 Casino Hotel in April 2019. Lion Fight pledged to return, never did, and it’s unclear whether the enterprise still exists.
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Now, Albuquerque promoters Marc Entenberg and Ricky Kottenstette have stepped into the void. Saturday’s card is their first under the Coalition Muay Thai banner.
This is just the beginning, Kottenstette said at Friday’s weigh-in.
“This is the first of many (Coalition) shows in New Mexico,” he said, “and we’re working on some out of state.”
For Gjelaj, it’s Christmas come early (or late).
“This is professional Muay Thai and it’s from here, so it’s a super special thing,” he said. “They’re doing a great job. … To be part of something that’s being so heavily invested in is cool, and for it to be the first one is cool, too. You’re not a part of a first promotion many times, so I’m just taking it all in.”
THE WEIGH-IN: Rio Rancho’s Jalin Fuller weighed in on Friday at 169 pounds for his main-event fight against Zach Bunnell (167.6) of Reno, Nevada.
In other pro fights:
Santa Fe’s Jess Martinez, 152.2, vs. Parker Bruno, Houston, 155.6.
Joe Sanderson, Pittsburgh, 156, vs. Jerry St. Rome, Florida, weight and hometown unavailable.
The card lost a co-main event when Denver’s Rebecca Watford, scheduled to face Moriarty’s Amber Brown, was forced to withdraw due to an injury. A total of nine amateur fights are scheduled.
