Yana Kunitskaya and Thiago Santos, the UFC lovers known to their hundreds of thousands of fans on social media for their carnal photos against dramatic backdrops, are making the most of a time of enforced octagon inactivity.
UFC power couple Kunitskaya and Santos, who have been in quarantine together in Brazil during the coronavirus pandemic, have teased fans with an April Fool's joke by pretending a scan of a fetus belonged to them.
Posting a topless photo of himself embracing a glamorously-robed Kunitskaya and a scan of the fetus, the former light heavyweight title challenger, whose nickname means hippo, claimed, “I didn’t waste my time in quarantine. Baby 'Marreta' coming soon.”
In a picture from the same photoshoot alongside the hoax scan, Kunitskaya told her 144,000 followers, “A lot of people asking when is my next fight. I think I need to take some time off. Boy or girl?”
After receiving congratulations from the likes of Ali Abdelaziz, whose Dominance MMA company manages fighters including lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, Kunitskaya admitted the revelation had been a stunt.
"We still have some work to do," she said, adding that Thiago had been "so surprised" at the deluge of good wishes from followers and "wanted really" to "make a baby right now".
The couple have previously made it clear that they have discussed starting a family. In a photo taken against a metal gate through which Santos’s back tattoo takes the focus, Kunitskaya wrote last week: “If they gonna do isolation here in Brazil, I think I will be pregnant earlier than we planned.”
They originally revealed their relationship when they stood together holding rifles in the air at a shooting range last November, also posing in front of a small yurt in a deserted setting as Kunitskaya called Santos, “my Brazilian Russian.”
Santos and Kunitskaya have absorbed each other’s cultures, although the bantamweight star has recently provided updates in Russian on Santos’s serious knee injury, sustained when he lost the headline fight of UFC 239 to champion Jon Jones at UFC 239 in July.
They have become known for their stylish photoshoots together. In one theatrically-staged snap in Nevada, Kunitskaya draped herself amorously on top of the horizontal Santos under a sheet on a moonlit beach, adding the lyrics to the 1975 Queen hit "You’re My Best Friend."
Santos frequently reveals his torso during the shoots, including one in which he could be seen kissing Kunitskaya and holding what appeared to be a giant illuminating umbrella over their heads, this time accompanied by the words to the Diana Ross classic "Baby Love," from 1964.
Describing their connection, the 36-year-old said they had “found one another in a world of seven billion people” and was a fervent supporter of Kunitskaya as she faced Aspen Ladd in the UFC in Washington in December.
Holding a pad as his partner landed a kick, Santos praised Kunitskaya’s “inspiring” discipline, then offered comfort following her third-round defeat by promising, “I am with you no matter what. Keep your head up. We will come back much better and stronger.”
Several of their semi-clothed shots have been taken in a gym, with Santos variously wearing boxing gloves, holding a hammer and standing either side of a punchbag to his love.
“I am thankful for every moment we spend together and I wish our happiness never ends,” Kunitskaya hoped in one of them.
Santos has also not been shy to share his sentiments on the burgeoning romance. “When you have someone who loves you and someone who you love, everything becomes easier,” wrote the number two in the division.