Ronda Rousey Responds To Pregnancy Rumors Tweeted By Rival, Cris Cyborg

There’s no denying Ronda Rousey has had it tough outside the ring, since her defeat inside the ring. The UFC fighter is struggling to get back on track and back in the ring, so rumors that she’s pregnant and considering giving it all up for a family with long-time boyfriend Travis Browne are only making matters worse. Ms. Rousey came forward to discuss the rumors with UFC president Dana White, as she tried to nail down the source of the gossip and found that it seems to have been initiated by one of her own rivals.

Ronda Rousey Reacts To The Rumor That She’s Expecting A Baby

New York Post reports that, just as Ronda’s absence from the UFC competitions reaches a nine month long hiatus, rumors of a pregnancy threaten to destroy Rousey’s remaining hopes to return to her career as a fighter. The rumors have been initiated by Cris “Cyborg” Justino, who would be Rousey’s chief competition, were she ready to return to the UFC at this point. While Cris’ Twitter post implies that she heard the rumor elsewhere, it may have been started by Justino herself as a way of firing up Ronda and compelling her to get back into the Octagon sooner than planned.

While Ms. Rousey hasn’t yet made a public statement about the rumor, UFC president Dana White says he has spoken to Ronda. Ms. Rousey called the UFC president as soon as she learned of Justino’s tweet and assured him that there was no truth to the pregnancy rumor.

The rumor of Ronda’s pregnancy seemed to bear a ring of truth to those following Rousey’s career. After the upsetting loss in her fight against Holly Holm, Ronda spoke of feeling depressed by the defeat and revealed that she had considered suicide. The former UFC champ was kept from attempting suicide by the sight of boyfriend Travis Browne, and the idea of starting a family with him.

“To be honest, I looked up and saw that my man Travis was standing there, and I looked up at him and was just like, ‘I need to have his babies. I need to stay alive,'” Rousey revealed in a guest appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show, earlier this year. “I was thinking I was meant to have him when I was at my lowest. I wouldn’t have made it without him.”

Ronda Rousey Is Serious About Getting Back In Shape

Ms. Rousey wants to get back into the Octagon in a big way and her path toward that goal requires six-hour training sessions with Edmond Tarverdyan, reveals People magazine. Tarverdyan says Ronda needs to forgo the quick workouts, because they won’t help her achieve the results she’s looking for in the limited time period outlined for her return to the UFC. Instead, Edmond says his client will have to challenge herself with six-hour daily workouts.

The sessions, which Ronda endures six days a week, focus on strength training, conditioning, and boxing training, so it’s an intensive workout that covers the major areas in which Rousey needs work. As is the case with any workout, Rousey begins each session with stretches and her trainer reveals that she uses a long pole to help with posture and balance.

“You’re stretching out your hips, shoulders, knees,” says Tarverdyan. “You’re getting a nice warm-up before throwing any punches so you’ll be nice and warm to prevent injuries.”

Stretching is followed by 10 to 12 rounds of bag work and Edmond’s idea of bag work is to keep on the move. He forces Rousey to circle her away around the bag, as she throws her punches, and, just to mix things up even more, he has Ronda change direction every 90 seconds. The bag workout is followed by hitting Tarverdyan’s mitts in the ring. They go 10 to 15 rounds with each round lasting three-to-five minutes. Depending on her trainer’s mood, Rousey may fing herself doing over an hour of mitt punching without a break.

When it comes to strength training, Ronda Rousey isn’t required to lift heavier weights. She sticks with two pound dumbbells, working out her arms by doing uppercuts, straight punches, high punches, tricep curls, and shadowboxing.

The six-hour training session ends with crunches and even these exercises are intense, says Edmond. Ms. Rousey sometimes gets as many as 2,000 crunches in, before calling it a day.

“Abs you can do as much as you want,” says Tarverdyan. “She keeps the intensity very high!”

[Image by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Reebok]