The rumors are true.
UFC heavyweight Travis Browne confirmed on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour that he is in a relationship with Ronda Rousey.
"Dating is for children," Browne said. "Dating is for kids. Over the summer, through all the sh*t that I had to shuffle through, that I had to sift through, Ronda and I started talking throughout the summer and 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."
Browne and Rousey are teammates at Glendale Fighting Club in Los Angeles. But "Hapa" said that has not been an awkward situation since they were training at the same gym before they ever developed feelings for one another.
"It's not weird," Browne said. "It's not something we have to adjust to. We've been doing that the entire time that I was here. She was doing her camps, I was doing mine without that thought process going through our head.
"There isn't a single damn thing, unless it has to do with a family member on their deathbed, that's going to distract me from those two hours and being focused in that gym. When my coach talks, I listen. When he's working with somebody else, I'm watching. The same goes for her and she's actually been a great example of that, of just being ultra focused and being borderline obsessive with training. And it's not weird at all. Like I said, we didn't start off interested in each other and now we have to work together. We worked together when we were just acquaintances."
Recently, Browne was accused of domestic violence by his estranged wife, Jenna Webb. The UFC conducted a third-party investigation, which came back that there was no conclusive evidence that he abused Webb, according to a UFC statement.
Rumors that the two were a couple started online over the summer. Rousey, the UFC's biggest star, has never addressed the relationship publicly. Browne has been separated from his wife since June.
"Not once did we ever think about this," Browne said. "It wasn't even a thought that went through our heads at all. So I've gotten to know her through the gym, through all that kind of stuff. I see her for who she is. The fact that she's out there winning ESPYS and the star she is on the movie screen and all that kind of stuff, that's all great. But that's not who I know her as, if that makes sense. I know her as one of the hardest working athletes that I've ever seen, in this gym busting her butt on a daily basis. And through our own personal experiences of how compassionate and really how much of a sweetheart she really is. That's what a lot of people don't see out of her. They see that, but they don't really get to experience that."
Browne, 33, said Rousey being wildly popular, even in the mainstream, has not brought any kind of apprehension for him.
"She's a huge star and that's great for her and I'm happy for her," he said. "I want nothing to do but support that aspect in her life."
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