Back in August, word got out that UFC women’s champion Ronda Rousey might be dating UFC heavyweight and Glendale Fighting Club teammate Travis ‘Hapa’ Browne. Nothing too crazy about that… except for the little detail that Browne was under suspension at the time while the UFC investigated claims from his girlfriend, Jenna Renee Webb, that he beat her during their relationship.
Browne was later reinstated after that investigation yeilded “inconclusive evidence.” And now he’s speaking out about the relationship, revealing on The MMA Hour that him and Ronda are pretty serious. Transcript via Fox Sports:
“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.”
…
“I’ve gotten to know her through the gym, through all that kind of stuff. I see her for who she is,” he said. “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 isn’t the first UFC fighter Ronda Rousey has dated. One confirmed past relationship was with Brendan Schaub, another guy who fights in the Heavyweight division. Since they broke up, he’s dropped a couple of hints about what it’s like to date the champ. “She needs a guy who’s gonna take a backseat. She also needs a guy who’s gonna say yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am,” he said during an episode of his Fighter & The Kid pocast.
He also specifically mentioned Rousey’s relationship with Browne during another podcast, saying, “It’s tough when you’re like, uhhh don’t be a do nothing b*tch and you hate on Mayweather, and then your boyfriend’s over here beating the sh*t out of his wife!”
Schaub may have other reasons for not liking Browne. The two fought in December of 2014, with Browne knocking Schaub out in one round. Through the leadup to their fight there were all sorts of strange passive aggressive snipes between the two and their coaches. Could it all be fallout over Rousey? Whatever was behind it, Travis won the fight and got the girl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSx2VCjf3dQ
(Via The MMA Hour)
