UFC heavyweight fighter Travis Browne has confirmed that he’s in a relationship with woman’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.
Browne left the Jackson’s MMA camp in 2014 to Glendale Fight Club which both he and Rousey train with coach Edmond Tarverdyan, and it seems that eventually led to a romance blossoming between the two fighters after the 33 year-old Browne left his wife.
“Over the summer, through all the shit that I had to sift through, Ronda and I started talking,” Browne told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour show yesterday. “I’ll say now that we are together. She’s my woman and I’m her man. There’s no boyfriend-girlfriend stuff. There’s no ‘dating.’ We’re together.”
When rumors of a relationship between the two first broke last month it surprised many people given that back in July Browne had been accused of domestic abuse by his wife, fitness model Jenna Renee Webb which led to him being temporarily suspended by the UFC pending an investigation into the claims.
Webb had posted evidence online of the alleged abuse in a series of pictures showing her with bruises and cuts on her body and face, along with a message saying that she was, “still ashamed for staying [with Browne] as long as I did.”
Browne, who says he left Webb in May, denied her claims and at the end of August his UFC suspension was lifted after a private investigation discovered “inconclusive evidence” of any wrongdoing on his part. He’s now in the process of divorcing Webb.
Still, eyebrows are sure to be raised that he’s now dating Rousey given that several times this year she’s publicly called out boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr over his past instances of domestic violence, stating, “I wonder how Floyd feels being beat by a woman for once,” at the ESPY awards back in June after winning the ‘Best Fighter’ category.
For his part, Browne says that Rousey is “a sweetheart” and added that, “The fact that she’s out there winning ESPYs… That’s all great, but that’s not who I know her as. I know her as one of the hardest-working athletes that I’ve ever seen, in this gym, busting her ass on a daily basis.”
Browne, who’s ranked No.5 in the heavyweight division, is scheduled to return to the Octagon in January against Matt Mitrione, while Rousey’s next title defense comes against Holly Holm at UFC 193 in Australia next month.
