Husband Cheats On Dumont, Corners Her Anyway
03/28/2025 03:37 PM
Norma Dumont found out her husband, who also served as her longtime coach, was cheating on her just three weeks before her 135-pound showdown against fellow bantamweight contender, Irene Aldana, at the UFC 306 pay-per-view (PPV) event last Sept. inside Sphere in Las Vegas.
The show must go on.
"What happened was, I found out a little before the fight that he was cheating on me," Dumont told Ariel Helwani. "So, we went through the whole thing and got a divorce. It was before the fight, matter of fact, about three weeks before the fight. This was a 14-year marriage. He was always my coach the entire time, but the fight was there, and there was no time to change corners. There would be no time to adapt to somebody new. We didn't want to speak about it before the fight because we didn't want that to overshadow the fight. The fight was really what was important."
Dumont defeated Aldana by unanimous decision and moved to No. 4 in the 135-pound rankings. That said, the top half of the division is stuck in limbo while Julianna Pena and Kayla Harrison battle for Pena's belt at UFC 316 on June 7 in Newark.
"I need to fight — I think a fighter needs to fight, right? We've been talking about this point with the organization for a while now," Dumont continued. "I'm coming from a complicated situation with five victories, but it's tough to get a belt fight here. I mean, we're trying to get something, but it's just the way the whole thing is set up, it's really hard to get a fight there. The reality is that I'm not the first option for any of them. I understand. Really, I think with the options we have in the Top 5, I'd be the most difficult athlete to face, because I have skills on the feet, I have skills on the ground, I'm a strong athlete, I have cardio. So, I think the degree of difficulty causes them to look for easier matchups."
Dumont, 34, is 12-2 overall and the winner of five straight.
