Competing in MMA at a professional level takes a tremendous toll on a fighter’s body. There’s endless hours of training, weight cuts and there’s always the possibility of injury. Now think about fighting while pregnant, that’s what Brazlian champion Kinberly Novaes did earlier this summer.
Novaes won the Noxii 115 lb title in Brazil on May 17th and was about to fight again next weekend until she found out that she was pregnant.
“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.”
If it wasn’t for the tough weight cut Novaes may have never known that she was pregnant.
“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.”
Thankfully the baby is perfectly healthy and Novaes can take some time off to be a mother. I’m sure it won’t be too long until we hear that she’s back in the cage fighting and competing.