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Ronda Rousey is one of the most successful celebrities to ever fight in the UFC.

Although she’s since moved on to greener pastures in the WWE, Rousey is still seen as a trailblazer for women in MMA. While her current husband, former UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, is not very remarkable, one of her past flings, another former UFC heavyweight, Brendan Schaub, has been quite successful since the pair split up many years ago.

Schaub wasn’t as successful as she was in the UFC, but his success has largely been outside of the octagon. Here’s a look at how their relationship ended and how Brendan Schaub grew out of living in Ronda Rousey’s shadow. 

A look at Ronda Rousey’s past relationship with Brendan Schaub

Ronda Rousey on the red carpet
Ronda Rousey | Mary Clavering/Young Hollywood/Getty Images

The couple’s relationship was a short one, and it was only public for a little while in 2014. Not long after they broke up, the two were already giving hints about why their romance ended.

For example, according to MMA Mania, Rousey said that she wanted someone who looked like “a real man.”

That said, Rousey didn’t mention Schaub by name, so it’s possible she was just talking in general.

Schaub, on the other hand, said that the two couldn’t work things out since he’d disagree with her at times. “I’m not the guy for the job. I’m just not. I’m too much (of a man),” Schaub said.

Interestingly, Schaub got knocked out by Rousey’s future husband, Browne, in late 2014. Neither have commented on this coincidence, but it’s very possible that their feelings about one another was affected by this knockout. 

While Schaub’s UFC career and romance with Rousey both ended in flames, his professional career did not end there.

Brendan Schaub retires and pivots to comedy

Schaub had been a guest and a friend of Joe Rogan for a while, and after a long and introspective chat between the two, Schaub decided to hang up his gloves and retire from fighting. Instead, he pursued comedy like his friend did. 

In 2015, according to Wealthy Gorilla, he started doing stand up comedy. Like Rogan, he also put a lot of his energy into running and hosting his podcasts. Schaub is now part of three successful podcasts, The Fighter and the Kid, Below the Belt with Brendan Schaub, and King and the Sting.

On top of that, he’s also gotten a few gigs hosting shows for TV. One of the more lucrative ones was a gig with Showtime where he’d host a show that was also called ‘Below the Belt with Brendan Schaub.’

As a result, he now has a net worth of about $3 million, according to Wealthy Gorilla. This is a higher net worth than what many UFC fighters have, since UFC fighters don’t actually get paid much if they aren’t popular fighters or champions.

What they’re doing today

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For Rousey, she seemed to have found her “real man” since she married Browne in 2017. Despite having a successful UFC career, Browne has also retired from the sport. In terms of work, Rousey is in the WWE, but she’s also doing other gigs as well.

For Schaub, his professional life has flourished, and so has his personal life. According to Earn the Necklace, he’s engaged to his girlfriend, Joanna Zanella, and they may have gotten married in secret, too. She’s a Mexican model and an actress, and the two have two kids together. Tiger Schaub was born in 2016, and Boston Schaub was born in 2019.

That said, by and large, their relationship is also private, and Schaub prefers to talk about other things than his personal life when he’s on the air. 

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