Irish mixed martial artist (MMA) fighter Conor McGregor is the highest-paid athlete in history with his best-selling pay-per-view matches and famous rivalries against the likes of Dustin Poirier and Donal Cerrone. He's known for pitiless trash talking and a prominent gorilla tattoo on his chest. How does his fiancée Dee compare?
Dee Devlin AKA "Mrs. Ruthless" has been Conor's girlfriend since 2008 and is the mother of their three shared children: Conor Jr, Croía and Rían. She hails from Dublin, like Conor, and finally secured the title of "fiancée" in 2020. Currently, she works a the finance manager on Conor's team. McGregor told VIP in 2013, "Every day since I started in this game, she’s supported me. She’d drive me to the gym, and she’d listen to all my dreams. I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn’t for her. I’m doing all this for her."
Alexander Shlemenko is a Russian professional Kickboxer and MMA middleweight fighter known for his specialty combat style, including unique spinning back kicks, back fists, and knee strikes. While his fighting style might be unorthodox, his views on marriage are anything but. During an early 2021 interview with Omsk-Inform, he said, "A woman... can neither yell, nor go against the head of the family – nothing... And such a woman will be respected, be worth giving your life for. This is what women don’t realize..."
Alexander's wife Alyona AKA Alena Schlemenko didn't seem to mind the comments, however. As the mother of their three children, she probably stopped paying attention to these things years ago. It's unclear how the pair met or what she does for a living, but it's clear that she supports her husband through and through.
Former MMA fighter Dan Hardy began his career in 2004 after dropping out of Nottingham Trent University to pursue fighting full-time. Hardy is currently dating girlfriend Veronica Macedo, but he was once married to the spiritual yoga instructor and Instagram influencer Lacey Ann until they divorced a few years after marrying in October 2014.
Lacey and Dan's split shocked the world of UFC because they seemed to have the perfect relationship. Lacey frequently changed her hair color, pursued alternative medicine and spirituality, and accompanied her ex-husband to many of his fights. Fortunately, both of them seem happy despite the split. Lacey Ann continues to grow her "hot yoga" business and Dan supports his new girlfriend at fights of her own.
Demetrious Johnson is one of the best UFC flyweights in history. From successfully completing the most takedowns in the flyweight division to becoming both the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix Champion and #1 in their rankings, Johnson's success isn't easy to replicate. Due to a rough childhood, he never met his father but credits his wife for helping him move on from his past.
His wife Destiny — dubbed "Mighty Wife" — first met Demetrious at Red Lobster as co-workers. On May 11, 2012, they wed in Hawaii and had their sons two years apart, Tyron and Maverick. In 2018, they greeted their first daughter. Demetrious told The Heavy that Destiny "is the best thing that has ever happened to me and without her, life would be incomplete."
As of early January 2021, fighter Robert Whittaker ranked #1 in the UFC middleweight rankings but he's invested in much more than MMA. Specifically, he's dedicated to family, as evidenced by his willingness to become the legal guardian of his younger half-siblings Kerehi and Henry Matafeo. Family first is Whittaker's motto!
Luckily for this family man, he started one of his own with his wife Sophia! They share four children: three sons named John, Jack, and Jace, plus one daughter, Lilliana. Sophia is a track and field athlete and more than able to keep up with her husband in the gym.
Carlos Condit is a former American MMA fighter who retired from the sport after securing the title of Interim UFC Welterweight Champion. During his time away from the octagon, he launched headfirst into running his own businesses, including a coffee shop and collaborating on a line of jeans with Sene.
Condit married his longtime partner Seager Marie McCullah in late 2010 just in time for a Christmas celebration. Earlier that same year in March, they welcomed their first child to the world. It's unclear what Seager does for a living yet it's obvious that she's a loving mother and supporter of her husband in retirement.
Amanda and Nina Nunes are equally strong, fierce, and independent ladies who just so happen to be married. Amanda is a Brazilian professional MMA fighter who secured the titles of UFC Women's Featherweight and Bantamweight Champion. In December 2021, she ranked #1 in the UFC bantamweight rankings. Pretty impressive! So what about her wife?
Nina Ansaroff competes in the strawweight division of UFC and ranked #6 in women's rankings back in October 2021. Rather than feeling competitive with Amanda, she credits her wife for her success, telling USA Today Sports, “It helps me to be calm because I know Nina understands. She knows everything that goes into being a fighter, so I don’t have to explain why I am doing this or that. Sometimes getting ready to fight is a difficult time, but she makes it easy for me, and I try to do the same for her.”
Mark Anthony De La Rosa began his future MMA career at 12 when he started training in jiu-jitsu as a fitness exercise. He quickly transitioned into a jiu-jitsu coach then broke into professional fighting with UFC in the flyweight division. Luckily for his stepdaughter, both Mark and his wife Montana are UFC fighters.
Montana also competes in the flyweight division of UFC on the women's side. She first began wrestling in high school before transitioning to both Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA. She is the mother of Zaylyn, her daughter from a previous relationship. Needless to say, Mark isn't the only one in the house who knows how to throw down.
Another UFC couple includes Rose Namajunas and Pat Berry. Both fighters are successful in their own right, but Pat Berry is practically legendary given his stellar low kicks and winning his first-ever UFC fights with knockouts. That being said, Namajunas has nothing to be intimidated by. She's a two-time champion of the UFC strawweight division and ranked #2 overall.
The couple met at kickboxer Duke Roufus' gym where they became training partners. Because Barry had recently lost his home to Hurricane Katrina, he commented to Roufus' gym where Namajunas had been training throughout high school. Barry dubs their romance "love at first sight" and finally got engaged in 2014.
Born in South Africa, JP Buys first began fighting to improve his rugby skills, which obviously morphed into a career rather than a supplemental hobby. In his amateur fighting career, Buys has no losses, but that same success didn't translate to his first fight in the UFC in March 2021 where he lost against Joby Sanchez.
Despite JP's disappointing losses in the past year, his UFC fighter wife continues to back him up and clap back at any haters. On Instagram, Cheyanne wrote, "Idgaf what anybody has to say you a savage who’s always looking to finish his opponent. I’m always going to ride with you boo... Through the highs and the lows I’m here for it all... And to the assholes telling me to divorce him. Your [sic] all scum." Luckily, Cheyanne was able to knock out Gloria de Paula in July and win her first UFC fight.
Travis Browne is a former MMA Heavyweight fighter who secured modest success in UFC before the organization's president Dana White publicly told MMA Fighting, "I think that Travis should retire." That's not exactly an honorable discharge from fighting. Good thing he has the legendary fighter Ronda Rousey by his side!
Rousey is an athlete through and through, becoming the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo at the 2008 Summer Olympics then transitioning to MMA which eventually granted her a spot in the UFC Hall of Fame. She began dating Browne in 2015, was engaged in 2017, and married that same year in Hawaii. They share one daughter who was born in late 2021, La’akea Makalapuaokalanipo Brown.
Thiago Santos is an MMA fighter from Brazil who has been competing professionally in the sport since he was 2010 after he joined UFC from The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 2. Currently, he competes at rank #5 in the UFC light heavyweight division and won a recent fight against #10 competitor Johnny Walker.
Santos' partner is the Russian UFC bantamweight fighter Yana Kunitskaya who is currently ranked #7 in her division. Santos proposed to Kunitskaya in December 2020 before announcing a year later that they are expecting their first joint child together. They already co-parent Santos' son Hiago from one of his previous relationships.
Kamaru Usman is a Nigerian-American MMA athlete who got his start in both freestyle and graduated folkstyle wrestling. Unlike some other athletes who started outside of MMA fighting, Usman successfully transitioned to UFC as a welterweight, currently ranking #1 in the division, and even won The Ultimate Fighter 21 tournament!
Kamaru shares a daughter with his wife Eleslie Dietzsch named Samirah who was born in 2014. Dietzsch is of both Brazilian and Portuguese descent and has over 1,000 followers on Instagram. She frequently posts photos of herself in the trendiest clothes and fashion-forward outfits for fans to fawn over.
Australian MMA professional and former boxer Alexander Volkanovski is the current UFC Featherweight Champion of the division on top of being the former Australian Fighting Championship Featherweight champion. Volkanovski shares two children, Ariana and Airlie, with his wife Emma. Emma is the perfect match for Alexander because she's a self-proclaimed fitness freak and keeps up with him in the gym.
While there are plenty of things to share about Emma, most people focus on her height. At 5 feet and 9 inches tall, she towers over her husband at barely 5'6. Before marrying Alexander in 2015, Emma studied Physiology at the University of Sydney, which explains her obsession with personal health. Rather than getting high on fame and money, Alexander began fighting to secure a happy and comfortable life for his family. Lucky her!
Dustin Poirier is at the top of his game right now. Sitting at #2 for UFC lightweight rankings and as a former Interim champion of the division, he's got it made. Even better, he scored the woman of his dreams Jolie and had his first child Parker Noelle with her on August 20, 2016. Most of the time Dustin stays in Lafayette with his family but will also train at American Top Team in Florida.
Half of the professional fighting is adjusting yourself mentally on top of physical fitness. Dustin credits Jolie for her sacrifices and helping him to stop obsessing over perfection, telling Yahoo! Sports, “I used to overthink things a lot... I’ve been in this sport a long time and she’s been there with me... This is a long journey I’ve been on and I have a chance to do some pretty amazing things. And I wouldn’t have been able to do what I do without her, so I’m grateful.”
Two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic is widely considered the greatest heavyweight fighter in the UFC ever! Few fighters have the opportunity to join the UFC but his MMA wins are merely the cherry on top of his career. Prior to UFC, Miocic was a Golden Gloves boxing champion and D-1 wrestler at Cleveland State. Coincidentally, the fighter didn't meet Carney at wrestling, boxing, or MMA match; instead, Carney's brother set her up with Miocic while he worked as a firefighter. Ryan Marie abandoned cosmetology to work as a nurse after graduating from Ohio's Cuyahoga community college.
She even went to one of Miocic's Brazilian fights to reportedly "help out" with medical care. The couple married in 2016 and currently have two children. As simple as it looks, their love story was a long time coming. Miocic told Renee Paquette that it took seven years for the pair to finally date. "She was dating someone, I was dating someone who just never lined up perfectly... And then randomly her brother set her up with me at the fire station. So my first text I sent my wife was 'Hey, it's your stalker."' You can't avoid the strings of fate!
Jan Blachowicz is a Polish fighter and the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. Because he's only the second Polish fighter to compete in the UFC, and the first to become champion, Poland sings his praises like no other. Plus, Blachowicz's partner Dorota Jurkowska has plenty to be proud of, too.
Blachowicz wholeheartedly believes that Jurkoska is worth fighting for as he relocated to Warsaw and abandoned his long-time club to stay with her. Jurkowska is a Polish businesswoman and has been an avid MMA fan because of her sister Lukasz. She is the wife of Jan Blachowicz. She's constantly promoting her partner's fights to her 24k Instagram followers.
Russian professional MMA fighter Petr Yan is a top performer in the bantamweight division of the UFC, where he is ranked #11 in his division. Formerly, he was the Bantamweight Champion for both UFC and Absolute Championship Berkut. Currently, he's the Interim Bantamweight Champion, but his titles aren't all that matters to Petr. He has an adoring wife and two adorable sons!
Petr keeps most of the personal details of his life under wraps in order to protect his family, but we do know a couple of fun facts. His wife's name is Yulia and his sons are Daniil and Konstantin, the latter of whom was born during the beginnings of the pandemic in mid-2020.
Jerome Max Keli'i Holloway American-born MMA featherweight fighter who's competed in the UFC since 2020. The Honolulu native is UFC Featherweight Champion who defended the title three times and ranks #1 in his division. Holloway made history as the youngest fighter in the UFC back when he joined in 2012.
Also in 2012, Holloway married Kaimana Pa'aluhi with whom he shares one son, Rush. Unfortunately for them, their love story didn't last. They separated two years after tying the knot and officially divorced in 2017. Holloway spent three years alone before committing himself to surfer Alessa Quizon and proposing to her in 2021.
Charles Oliveira da Silva is a Brazilian-born fighter who has broken multiple records in both the Lightweight division and the UFC as a whole. For instance, he holds the title of UFC Lightweight Champion, has the most submission wins (15) and most finishes (18) in the organization's history. Oliveira shares a child, Tayla, with his wife Talita.
Talita Roberta Pereira Charles is a fellow fighter, practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Appropriately, the couple first met at a gym and married in early 2014 with have shown no signs of breaking up since. Some say that Talita is a trainer at her husband's gym, but others claim she holds a position at a hospital. No matter what she does for a living, Oliveira credits his success to her.
Mexican MMA flyweight fighter Brandon Carrillo Moreno is the current UFC Champion in his division and close to becoming the first Mexican fighter to win an overall UFC championship title. Moreno began fighting professionally with the Legacy Fighting Alliance in 2011 where he secured the title of LFA Flyweight champion.
Moreno's wife of ten years, Shirley, is the mother of their three girls — Maddie, Meghan, and Morgan. Moreno credits his newfound motivation to the UFC to his family, telling MMA Fighting, “Being a father has changed my life in unimaginable ways; I’ve taken everything in a more serious way because I know that my wife and daughters wait for me at home and depend on me to move on. That’s not something I take lightly, and I think fans will see that in the Octagon.”
Unlike many of the fighters included on this list, Chad Mendes transitioned away from UFC fighting rather than into the league after becoming a three-time UFC featherweight champion, which is where he launched into fame. Currently, he's competing in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship despite his history as a wrestler and featherweight MMA fighter.
While we don't know much about his wife Abby Raines, we do know that it took some convincing for her to be comfortable with Mendes switching from the UFC to bare-knuckle boxing. He told Yahoo!News, “It was definitely something that took a little persuading, for sure. She’s still not 100% in on it, but she’s very supportive of anything that I want to do. She’s like, ‘Are you kidding me? I thought we were done with all of this?'”
Francisco "Frank" Mir is a two-time American MMA Heavyweight champion who has competed in the UFC for 16 years! Not only was he the first to knock out renowned fighter Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, but he also holds three records in the UFC: two for the most finishes and submission victories in the heavyweight and one for the longest uninterrupted tenure in the UFC.
Frank married Jennifer Mir and they share three children together, one of which is a son from Jennifer's previous relationship. The pair first met when Frank worked as a bouncer at the Spearmint Rhino and married in 2004. Jennifer is also a businesswoman on top of being a mom, launching her own beauty salon JM Brow in early 2021. Fortunately, Frank's daughter, Bella, is also a professional mixed martial artist who began her fighting career in October 2020.
Former MMA fighter Charles "Chuck" Liddell was once the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, having over 20 fights in the UFC which helped popularize MMA in the world of mainstream sports and live entertainment. The UFC inducted Liddell into their Hall of Fame in summer 2009, one year before proposing to his current wife Heidi Northcott.
Heidi Northcott is a luxury real estate agent and the mother of their two biological children Guinevere and Charles David Liddell, Jr. Chuck also has a son named Cade from a previous relationship and a daughter named Tristan from a relationship with fellow MMA fighter Casey Noland.
Brock Lesnar is one of the biggest names in the world of fighting live for entertainment. He's performed everything from wrestling with WWE to professional football! Currently, he works for WWE but holds a legacy with the UFC as a former Heavyweight Champion. Despite multiple losses in the octagon, Lesner continued to sell some of the best-selling pay-per-view events when he headlined UFC fights.
Lesnar's wife is fellow WWE wrestler Rena Greek AKA "Sable." They married in May 2006 and live in Saskatchewan on a humble farm. They share two sons, Turk and Duke, and co-parent their children from previous marriages. For instance, Lesnar has twins with his previous partner Nicole McClain while Greek has a daughter from her first marriage.
Tyler Jeffrey "T.J." Dillashaw won the title of UFC Bantamweight Champion two times over during his time in the UFC and is currently ranked #2 as of 2021. Despite his two-year suspension from the sport for testing positive for the banned drug erythropoietin, he made an official comeback in 2021.
In the summer of 2014, T.J. married his girlfriend Rebecca Dillashaw in Sayulita, Mexico. Currently, she works for her husband's corporation TJ Dillashaw, Inc., and previously worked for McCarthy, MTV, and Viacom Media Networks. The couple shares a biological son Bronson Jack and reside in either Colorado or California.
Joseph Benavidez is a retired MMA fighter but accrued modest success as a UFC Flyweight competitor. In 2007, he abandoned his 9-5 as a screen printer in Mexico to join Urijah Faber's Team Alpha Male, which guided him to fight in Dream, the WEC, and for the UFC. And while fighting for UFC, he managed to score more than just a title or two...
Benavidez married the UFC reporter Megan Olivi who hosts UFC Ultimate Insider on Fox Sports 1. She studied political science and interned for Fox News while attending Seton Hall University. She went on to earn her master's in journalism and scored her prize spot on Fox Sports. Additionally, she hosts The Exchange With Megan Olivi on UFC Fight Pass.
Randy Couture is sort of a jack of all trades in the world of fighting, but before he launched his live entertainment career, he was an actor and former army sergeant. He has many impressive achievements under his belt with the most unique being his ability to regain a title in the UFC that he'd previously lost and managed to repeat it three times over for the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions.
Mindy Robinson is Couture's current partner whom he works with frequently. Robinson is an actress, model, and Couture's fourth wife. His previous marriages include those to Sharon, Tricia, and Kim Borrego. Kim and Randy divorced in May 2009, yet remained close as he coached her in her own MMA career.
