MMA fighter Kinberly Novaes was having a difficult time cutting weight for her Aug. 21 bout against Jocelyn Jones. As it turns out, there was a simple reason.
"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."
MORE: Best photos from UFC 190 in Brazil | Good, bad and dirty from UFC 190
When Novaes did the math, she realized she was 12 weeks pregnant during her last fight on May 17 in Brazil to win the Noxii 115-pound title.
"I’m a little stubborn, I don’t like to go to the doctor," Novaes said. "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."
The news was a shock for Novaes' boyfriend Jacson Carvalho, who is also an MMA fighter. According to Novaes, he went with her to the hospital thinking she was ill, not pregnant.
"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."
Noxii is not regulated by the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA), which means promoters schedule tests for fighters.
"I didn’t ask for the exam. That’s the truth," Novaes' promoter, Bruno Barros, told MMAFighting.com. "I didn’t even think about the possibility of a woman fighting while pregnant, going through a camp and dehydrating and everything.
"That was my first event. 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."