MMA fighter won title while 12 weeks pregnant
Kinberly Novaes underwent a physical to find out why she just couldn't drop the extra pounds in order to fight Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger – and the results were shocking.
The 24-year-old found out that she is almost six months pregnant!
And even more shocking – that means that she was about 12 weeks pregnant when she beat fellow fight Renata Baldan via unanimous decision back in May.
"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 said per MMAFighting.com's Guilherme Cruz. "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."
But how did her pregnancy get by the standard pre-fight medical exams?
Combate's Adriano Albuquerque said it was the result of an oversight by Noxii who promoted the fight.
"I didn't ask for the exam. That's the truth," Noxii promoter Bruno Barros said to Cruz. "I didn't even think about the possibility of a woman fighting while pregnant, going through a camp and dehydrating and everything."
The fight between Novaes and Jones-Lybarger on August 21 has been cancelled, and the fighter has not set a date for her return as of yet.