Travis Browne prepares to face Brendan Schaub in their heavyweight bout during the UFC 181 event inside the Mandalay Bay Events Center on December 6, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey of the United States pose for the media during the 189 World Media Tour Launch press conference at Maracanazinho on March 20, 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Embattled UFC heavyweight Travis Browne spoke publicly for the first time, Monday, about his relationship with bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. "Hapa" wanted to be clear, however, that they are not "dating."
"Dating is for children," he explained on the MMA Hour.
"Dating is for kids. Over the summer, through all the sh*t that I had to shuffle through, that I had to sift through, Ronda and I started talking throughout the summer and I'll say now that we are together. She's my woman and I'm her man. There's no boyfriend, girlfriend stuff. There's no dating. We're together."
Rousey's fast-rising fame automatically makes their relationship one that gossip rags will no doubt follow without restraint. However, Browne was careful to say that he only knows and cares about Rousey the person, not the movie star, champion, and best-selling author.
"I've gotten to know her through the gym, through all that kind of stuff. I see her for who she is," he said.
"The fact that she's out there winning ESPYS and the star she is on the movie screen and all that kind of stuff, that's all great. But that's not who I know her as, if that makes sense. I know her as one of the hardest working athletes that I've ever seen, in this gym busting her butt on a daily basis. And through our own personal experiences of how compassionate and really how much of a sweetheart she really is. That's what a lot of people don't see out of her. They see that, but they don't really get to experience that."
Browne didn't seem too worried about he and Rousey having additional challenges given that they both train at the Glendale Fight Club. After all, it was at that gym that the two began to grow close, all while training for UFC fights.
"It's not something we have to adjust to," he insisted.
"We've been doing that the entire time that I was here. She was doing her camps, I was doing mine without that thought process going through our head."
Browne is scheduled to fight Matt Mitrione on Jan. 17 in Boston. Rousey next defends her title Nov. 15 in Melbourne, Australia, against Holly Holm.
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