When they first met, Amanda Nunes was living in the gym and getting around on a bicycle, while Nina Ansaroff was getting started in the minor leagues of MMA, where you can readily become an actual hundredaire. Four years ago, in the earliest days of their relationship, they relied on Google Translate to communicate.

On Saturday at UFC 207, Nunes gets points on a Ronda Rousey pay-per-view. And Ansaroff fights Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger two weeks later at UFC Fight Night 103: Rodríguez vs. Penn. They plan to get married in time, and have children; they want to adopt, and Ansaroff aims to carry a baby. Life is good.

“Being in a relationship with someone who understands what is going on helps my fighting, said Nunes. But on the other side because we are fighters helps to make the relationship stronger. We understand the work that we put in and we respect each other. We met through fighting and it brings us closer.

For the first several years, they neither hid their relationship, nor made a particular point of being gay. However, when Nunes became the UFC bantamweight champion, things changed to a degree.

We never thought it was something that needed to be recognized, said Ansaroff to Martin Rogers for USA Today. “When we started getting emails from people who were having difficulties and struggling with their sexuality, it made us realize that maybe we should be a little bit stronger about this, to help these people.

The marketing for UFC 107 has been so focused on Ronda Rousey at color commentator that Joe Rogan characterized it as “extremely bizarre.” Ansaroff is unphased.

Amanda doesn’t need that stuff, said Ansaroff. She has this drive and confidence that nothing is going to stand in her way. She doesn’t need anyone telling her how good she is. I have seen it grow over time and she knows she is where she belongs, right at the top of women’s MMA. It is going to take a heck of a lot to take that away from her, whoever you are.