From mixed martial arts to basketball and beyond, there are plenty of renowned athletes from New Mexico. Check out these 12 examples.
New Mexico offers much more than its natural wonders and impeccable food, though you probably don’t need us to tell you that. It’s the people that make our beautiful state, well, beautiful. Folks across New Mexico show immense hospitality, and the state even holds funny world records, like launching the first mouse into space in 1950 (via KRQE News). But we’re here to talk about the real, raw talents that lie inside the Land of Enchantment.
New Mexico locals have made waves across many industries and fields, especially in sports, where folks from all walks of life have gone on to achieve great success. We’re talking basketball, mixed martial arts, race car driving, and baseball, among others. As such, we’ve rounded up 12 athletes from New Mexico to give us all an extra boost of state pride. You may not even have realized some of them grew up in your city!
1. Tommy McDonald
Born in Roy, N.M., in July 1934, Tommy McDonald grew up loving sports. He was athletically inclined and played a few different sports, but he made his name known with football. According to the Concussion & CTE Foundation, his family moved to Albuquerque while McDonald was in high school to give him a better shot at professional success.
And he achieved just that: McDonald went on to attend the University of Oklahoma, where he played for the Sooners. After college, he entered the NFL by joining the Philadelphia Eagles in 1957. He went on to play for several teams, including the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Rams, Atlanta Falcons, and Cleveland Browns, before retiring in 1969. During his tenure, he won one NFL championship and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1998. He died 20 years later in 2018.
2. Bob Foster
Bob Foster was one of the best boxers to come out of New Mexico. Although he was born in Texas in 1938, he spent most of his childhood in Albuquerque.
Foster notably competed in both the heavyweight and light heavyweight categories, and his years of training led him to a fateful 1968 night in Madison Square Garden in New York City, where he won the world light heavyweight championship.
Naturally, Foster had to defend his crown, which he did a whopping 14 times in the six years that followed. Foster’s matches took him around the world, including to Denmark, the Netherlands, South Africa, Canada, and beyond, and he left a sharp impression of his skills behind every time. All of this culminated in his immediate induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame when it opened in 1990. Foster died many years later in 2015.
3. Arian Foster
Another Foster in the pantheon of New Mexico athletes is football player Arian Foster, born in Albuquerque in August 1986. Foster left the Land of Enchantment in his teens and finished high school in San Diego. He then headed east for college, landing at the University of Tennessee and playing for its football team, the Volunteers. There, he had an impressive run, making him a tempting NFL draft pick afterward.
The NFL called him back westward, with Foster ending up on the Houston Texans in the late 2000s. He stayed there for several years and only moved again for his final professional year, playing for the Miami Dolphins in Florida in 2016. That same year, he announced his retirement. Foster was beloved by Texans and Dolphins fans, and he remains active online a decade later. He co-hosts the “Macrodosing” podcast and has even released music as Bobby Feeno from time to time.
4. Mara Sadé (Jakara Jackson)
A wrestler by any other name is just as resilient—or at least that’s the case for Mara Sadé, formerly known in the ring as Jakara Jackson. Sadé was born in Albuquerque in December 1994, and a few decades later, she’d find herself working for the biggest wrestling organizations in the world. It all started in 2021 when Sadé tried out for WWE. She won the iconic organization over, was given the name Jakara Jackson, and trained until her debut the following year. She continued on that path until 2025, when the winds of change whisked her to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).
Sadé’s time with TNA was short-lived. Halfway through 2026, her time with WWE and TNA ended, and she went independent. Now, fans can find her on social media going by her OG name and leaving Jakara Jackson in the past. On Instagram, she has more than 200,000 followers, and she’s proven that life after WWE is just as sweet. She’s walked runways, released music, and continued to slay in the ring.
5. Raúl Rosas Jr.
If you follow the current mixed martial arts scene, you may recognize Raúl Rosas Jr. This MMA star was born in Clovis, N.M., in 2004 and has been in the professional circuit since 2021, when he was just 17 years old. Yes, that makes him the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)’s youngest signee since its founding in 1993. Sometimes known as El Niño Problema, Rosas Jr. made history there alone, and he’s gone on to win fight after fight in the handful of years since aligning with the legacy organization. He’s now based out of Las Vegas, where he continues to hone his skills.
6. Alex Bregman
The many star athletes from New Mexico also include a pro baseball player: Alex Bregman. Born in Albuquerque in March 1994, Bregman has been on an upward trajectory his entire career. He currently plays for the Chicago Cubs, acting as a primo third baseman.
But before his time with the Cubs, Bregman made history back home in Albuquerque. He earned the USA Baseball Player of the Year Award as a high school sophomore, becoming the first high schooler ever to win the title. He used his skills and that title to get into Louisiana State University, where he played football for the Tigers. From there, he joined the MLB, playing for the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox before ending up on the Cubs for the 2026 season.
7. Holly Holm
We’re not sure what it is about our state, but many famous athletes from New Mexico are mixed martial artists. That’s the case for Holly Holm, who also boxes. Holm was born in Albuquerque in October 1981, and after years of training, she began competing professionally in the welterweight, light welterweight, and light middleweight divisions of boxing and the featherweight and bantamweight divisions of MMA.
Known at times as The Preacher’s Daughter, Holm was on the AKKA Karate USA team for the first several years of her career before moving to the Jackson Wink MMA Academy. Over the years, Holm’s biggest accomplishments have included becoming the Women’s Bantamweight Champion and causing one of the biggest upsets in women’s mixed martial arts when she beat the legendary Ronda Rousey in a fateful 2015 match in Melbourne, Australia.
8. Alana Nichols
If you’re interested in Olympic sports, you need to know the name Alana Nichols. She was born in New Mexico in March 1983, and as a teenager, she became paralyzed after a snowboarding trick went awry on the slopes. That didn’t stop Nichols from staying active. No, Nichols went on to master wheelchair basketball and alpine skiing, even taking them to the Paralympics.
According to Team USA, Nichols has three gold medals and was the first U.S. woman Paralympian to take home the gold in both the summer and the winter games. She also has two silver medals and one bronze, but those three golds alone make her one of the best athletes from New Mexico, if you ask us.
9. Al Unser Jr.
We can’t forget about race car legends when discussing the greatest athletes from New Mexico, now can we? Al Unser Jr. was born in Albuquerque in April 1962, and he won his first championship—the Canadian-American Challenge Cup—exactly 20 years later. Normally, winning such a big event so young would be surprising, but not in this case. Unser Jr. was often called Little Al in the industry because his father, also called Al Unser, was a famous race car driver before him. Motor oil ran in Little Al’s blood until he retired from the professional circuit in 2004—but not before winning more Long Beach Grand Prix titles than any racer before or after him. (It’s six for those curious.)
10. Travis Dodson
Born in Silver City, N.M., in October 1985, Travis Dodson is another Paralympian who’s brought a sweet, sweet gold medal back to the Land of Enchantment. Dodson was a Marine for a time, but during the Iraq War in 2007, a grenade caused him to incur permanent injuries. When he returned home, he adapted and eventually earned three gold medals in ice hockey at the Paralympics in Pyeongchang (2018), Beijing (2022), and Milan (2026). According to Team USA, Dodson has also won four gold medals and one silver medal at the World Championships over the years.
11. Diego Sanchez
Yet another of the athletes from New Mexico who was born in Albuquerque, Diego Sanchez is a mixed martial artist who has competed in various divisions, from featherweight to middleweight, since beginning his professional MMA journey in 2002. He was born in December 1981, and more than 40 years later, he still calls the Duke City home.
The fighter is well-known for winning the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” but his lengthy UFC career was followed by legal troubles: In February 2026, Sanchez pleaded guilty to a felony charge of shooting at or from a motor vehicle after a 2025 incident on Interstate 40 and was sentenced to five years’ probation. After a Sept. 7 DWI arrest in Socorro, a judge found he had violated that probation and ordered 30 more days in jail plus rehab, KOB 4 reported. The DWI charge itself is still pending.
12. Mike E. Smith
When people think of Roswell, they think of aliens, but when we think of Roswell, we think of Mike E. Smith. This famous horse jockey was born there in August 1965, 18 years after the crash that put Roswell on the map in a big way. At 61, Smith is still an active jockey, and it’s easy to see why. Heis immensely talented and has been widely praised throughout his illustrious career.
Similar to Al Unser Jr., Smith’s father, George, was a jockey, so he gets his passion for the sport honestly. He spent his life among the horses, and it earned him many competition wins, both domestically and abroad. This all led to his induction into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2003. But as we said, he didn’t slow down after that. Fifteen years later, Smith broke records by winning a series of races called the Triple Crown at 52 years old.
