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UFC's Miesha Tate, Bryan Caraway fight to be in love


There came a time early in their romance when Bryan Caraway told Miesha Tate she'd have to choose.

This was before they were boyfriend-girlfriend, before either had signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. They're both top-10 fighters in the men's and women's bantamweight divisions. Tate is training to fight Sara McMann at UFC 183 on Jan. 31.

But back then Tate and Caraway were college students who shared a passion for mixed martial arts and a growing interest in one another.

They met when Tate, then a freshman at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, began attending practices at the school's MMA club led by Caraway.

Soon after they began dating. But when Tate said she wanted to get serious about MMA and begin training with the competition team, Caraway put his foot down. He couldn't be the captain of the team if he was dating one of its members. Tate would have to choose between him or MMA.

"I thought she'd pick me," Caraway says. "I'm the cool senior guy at the college. Next thing you know, she shows up to practice."

True to his word, Caraway ended their romance, but Tate kept coming to practices.

When presented with a choice between a boyfriend and a sport she wanted to compete in, Tate says, "I chose the latter, even though I wanted both."

It wasn't until about a year later, Caraway says, he found himself looking at her one day at practice and seeing not just a girl, but a capable fighter who had the same desire to win that he did.

"I was kind of old-fashioned," Caraway says. "I don't want to say I didn't believe in women's MMA, but it was kind of rough for me. She proved to me that they could be just as mentally strong and physically gifted as the male talent. She won me over."

Still, there's a reason most relationship experts don't recommend that work colleagues date. It's even harder when the office is a fight gym, and a fighter is romantically involved with a coach.

That's the part that has been the hardest on Tate and Caraway. When Tate enters full fight camp mode, as she has for her bout against McMann, she used to feel as though her coach was following her home at night.

"In the transition to training camps, I felt like I would lose my partner, my boyfriend, and I felt like I just had another coach," Tate says. "That was hard. We just had to really communicate and figure out why that was."

They figured out they needed help, which is where Xtreme Couture coach Robert Follis comes in. The pair relocated to Las Vegas because he seems to be the one man who knows how to deal with them both, the couple says.

Follis admits that working with two fighters in love has its challenges, but the three of them are figuring it out. "With fighters, you have to have that extra level of trust, and they have that," Follis says. "They're also both as tough as they come."

Fowlkes writes for MMAjunkie.com.