Kinberly Novaes Won MMA Title While 12 Weeks Pregnant: Latest Comments, Reaction

Kinberly Novaes found out the hard way that cutting weight can be difficult when you're carrying a child. During a physical examination to determine why she was unable to lose the requisite pounds in order to face Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger, the 24-year-old discovered she's nearly six months pregnant.

That timeline means Novaes was roughly 12 weeks pregnant when she defeated Renata Baldan via unanimous decision on May 17.

"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 told 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."

One of the biggest questions is how Novaes' pregnancy went unnoticed during the standard pre-fight medical exams. According to Combate's Adriano Albuquerque, it was an oversight by Noxii, the promoter of the bout:

"I didn’t ask for the exam. That’s the truth," Noxii promoter Bruno Barros told Cruz. "I didn’t even think about the possibility of a woman fighting while pregnant, going through a camp and dehydrating and everything."

Novaes was originally supposed to fight Jones-Lybarger on Aug. 21, but that event was canceled upon the discovery of her pregnancy. She has not set an official date for her return. 

Perhaps the revelation of Novaes' pregnancy will alter Noxii's blood testing protocol going forward.