Brazilian fighter wins MMA title while 12 weeks pregnant

On May 17 of this year, Kinberly Novaes defeated Renata Baldan to win the Noxii 115-pound title in her native Brazil. She was 12 weeks pregnant. Surprisingly, she only found out she was pregnant within the last week, when she started having extreme difficulty with cutting weight for what would have been her RFA debut against Jocelyn Lybarger, set for August 21.

MMAFighting's Guilherme Cruz has the story:

"We did a morphology ultrasound last week and the doctor said I'm 24 weeks pregnant, almost six months, and my baby is healthy and strong," Novaes told MMAFighting.com. "I was worried because I trained hard, fought, cut weight. I suffered a lot to make weight for my last fight, couldn't dehydrate properly, and I was already training to fight again next week, but the doctor said everything is fine."

"I'm a little stubborn, I don't like to go to the doctor," Novaes said with a laugh. "I've been feeling sick for a while, colic, headaches and cramps. I was feeling tired recently, couldn't even run, and it was really tough for me to cut weight. I was cutting weight for my RFA debut, but couldn't lose weight. I did a stricter diet four weeks before the fight, and I actually gained 2.2 pounds in six days. I was desperate. I realized my belly was hard, so I thought I had some intestine issue. I took laxative and other things, but a guy that does massages for me told me to go to the doctor."

"I finally decided to go to the hospital, and the doctor immediately asked me if I was pregnant," she continued. "I insisted I was not, that I had an intestine issue, but he asked for a blood test. One hour later, he told us I was pregnant. I cried a lot, ran out of the hospital, but I realized that was good news. I thought I was sick, but I had a baby instead."

For those wondering how this could have happened, Noxii is not regulated by the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA). Owner, Bruno Barros has assumed the blame for the oversight, as told to MMA Fighting.

"That was my first event," he continued. "I asked for HIV and hepatitis tests, but some fighters didn't send me the results. I didn't pull them out of the fights because they all wanted to fight. Some fighters claimed they had no money to pay for the tests, others said they didn't have time to do it, but that's my fault that I let them fight anyway. But thank God everything is fine with the baby."