Ex-UFC champion Ronda Rousey announces pregnancy

Inaugural UFC bantamweight champion, ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey has announced that she is four months pregnant in a YouTube video released this week by her and her partner, former heavyweight contender, Travis ‘Hapa’ Browne.

Expecting the new arrival on September 22nd., the former Strikeforce bantamweight best revealed in the video that they had discovered in January that they would be expecting the birth of their first child. 

“Pow! Four months pregnant? What?” Rousey said. “You didn’t even know, the last four months. I’ve been pregnant since January. Woo, baby bump. I can’t hide it anymore so it’s time to show it off. I just wanted to share with you guys a little bit of a journey we’ve been on, and there’s definitely more of the story we’ll be telling later, but here we go.” (H/T BJPENN.com)

A dominant former bantamweight champion under the UFC’s banner, Rousey lodged an incredible six successful defences of the 135-pound crown between 2013 and 2015. In notable career wins, the Californian bested the likes of Liz Carmouche, Charmaine Tweet, Julia Budd, Miesha Tate (x2), Sarah Kaufmann, Sara McMann, Alexis Davis, Cat Zingano, and Bethe Correia.

Following a brief Octagon comeback against current two-weight champion, Amanda Nunes back at UFC 207 in December of 2016, Rousey called time on her professional mixed martial arts career, before debuting in professional wrestling under the WWE banner back in January of 2018. Rousey would reign as the company’s RAW women’s champion for 231 days — becoming the inaugural woman to headline the WWE’s flagship event. Wrestlemania. to boot. 

For her partner, Browne, whilst yet to officially announce his respective retirement from mixed martial arts, the 38-year-old Hawaiian has yet to feature in the Octagon since UFC 213 back in July of 2017 against Aleksei Oleinik.

With an 18-7 professional record, Browne has scored notable career successes against the likes of Stefan Struve, Gabriel Gonzaga, Alistair Overeem, Josh Barnett, Brendan Schaub, and Matt Mitrione. 

Ross Markey

Senior writer for FightBook MMA. An aspiring mixed martial arts reporter based in Ireland. Producer of news articles, interviews, opinion features, and exclusive features such as, ‘The Fallout’, ‘The Breakdown, and, ‘This Week In MMA’.