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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
Victoria Brum and Charles Oliveira have been in a committed relationship for several years, and their bond has grown stronger as Charles has risen to fame in the UFC. The first public glimpse of the couple was at the UFC event in Sao Paulo. Victoria has been a constant presence in Charles’ life, supporting him through the highs and lows of his MMA career, especially during his rise to becoming the UFC lightweight champion.
Vitoria herself has a notable career. She's also associated with the MMA world, being a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. Victoria and Charles often share glimpses of their personal life on social media, showcasing their close-knit partnership and family life. The couple has a son together, and Victoria is frequently seen at Charles' fights, cheering him on from the sidelines.
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.
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.
Bo Nickal, a talented American wrestler and mixed martial artist, is known for his impressive career in the NCAA and his rapid rise in the UFC. In addition to his athletic achievements, Bo is in a relationship with Maddie Holmberg, a skilled athlete in her own right.
Maddie, who is a former track and field athlete, shares a deep connection with Bo, supporting his career and goals both inside and outside the gym. While not much is publicly known about the details of their personal lives, it’s clear that Bo and Maddie share a strong bond. They often showcase their affection for one another through social media posts.
Layla and Ian Machado Garry share a strong and supportive relationship that complements Ian’s rising career as a UFC fighter. Ian, known for his impressive skills in the octagon, often credits his success to the love and encouragement he receives from Layla. She is an integral part of his journey, standing by him through both victories and challenges.
Layla's career isn't far from her husband's: she is an English television presenter who specializes in sports. Layla was exposed to children's programming while she was living in South America, and after watching a notable TV presenter, a spark for a sports broadcaster ignited in her! She's worked with Cage Warriors, UFC Connected, and more.
Gonzalez and O'Malley have been together since they were young adults. After dating for a few years, O'Malley popped the big question, and the couple tied the knot in 2017. They welcomed their first child in 2020 and named their daughter Elena.
As Sean’s career in mixed martial arts started to take off, Danya remained by his side, offering both emotional support and stability through the ups and downs of his professional journey. Danya is a talented hairstylist who owns a salon. She's also a big influencer with a big following on Instagram.
These two are high school sweethearts. Alexander married his wife Emma on October 12, 2012. Now, they've been together for over 15 years! Their relationship is often described as a partnership, with Emma supporting Alexander both in his personal life and in his demanding fighting career. Notably, Emma has a B.Sc. in Psychology from the University of Sydney.
Together, they have two daughters, and Emma often shares glimpses of their family life on social media, showcasing their close-knit bond. Their relationship is marked by a deep connection, with Alexander frequently expressing how much he appreciates Emma’s role in his life and career. These two have a strong and enduring relationship!
Jon Jones and Jessie Moses have been in a long-term relationship that spans over a decade. The couple remains deeply committed to each other through the highs and lows of Jon's career in the UFC. The couple met back when they attended Endicott High School. They broke off the relationship, and Jones started dating another woman, but these two can withstand anything—they reunited and entered their now long-term relationship!
Throughout their engagement, Jessie has been a key figure in Jon’s life, often sharing moments of their family life on social media. The couple has three daughters. Their bond has only strengthened over the years, despite the pressures that come with Jon’s public life and MMA career.
Stipe Miocic met Ryan Marie through her brother, and they instantly hit it off. Fast forward to today, they're in a loving marriage and have two children. Ryan has been an unwavering source of support for Stipe, both during his fighting career and in their personal life.
Their relationship is marked by mutual respect and a shared commitment to family, with Stipe often expressing his gratitude for Ryan’s role in his success. Carney has an impressive list of occupations. She's trained as a nurse, worked as a hairstylist, was a cosmetology instructor, and a real estate agent!
Quizon and Holloway started dating in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and confirmed their relationship to the public on Instagram in 2020. They married in the Spring of 2022. The couple have interesting and impressive careers: Holloway is a mixed martial artist, and Quixon is a professional surfer!
Alessa, with her background in surfing, shares Max’s passion for sports and fitness, and they both value the importance of a balanced and healthy lifestyle. Over the years, she has been a key source of emotional support as Max navigates his UFC career. Max and Alessa are married and have a son together, often sharing glimpses of their family life on social media.
